Linux Server Rebuild - Keeping the existing RAID0 Data

Greetings,

Im not the best on Linux so i was hopeful of some assistance/help with a rebuild.

My Linux server boot drive (USB) failed after a few years of use and i need to rebuild the system. The system is a HP Microserver and i have RAID0 setup with 2 x 3TB WD Drives as storage. The RAID is software RAID done on the HP software.

I am ready to rebuild the server but i want to preserve the existing RAID configuration and data.

On the installation "Storgage Configuration" page im unsure how to proceed here incase i make an error and wipe my RAID config and data completely.

Do i create an LVM? DO i add a GPT Partition? Is there something different i need to do? * screenshot attached *

Any help very greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Martin

Looks like your RAID fully occupies your two 3TB drives, so where do you want to put the new install? Shrinking existing filesystems and RAIDs is neither fast nor easy.

Hi there,

Thanks for the reply!

I don't want to touch the existing RAID configuration at all.

I want the OS to be installed onto the USB drive the installation is running off. I thought this screen was to assign the storage.

Thanks,

Martin

Originally Posted by marty1980 I don't want to touch the existing RAID configuration at all.

Excellent idea - I wouldn't do anything. That looks like an array Linux will recognise as-is.
Depending on how you are planning on re-building, any distro that includes device manager (i.e. all of them) should recognise that md127 and probably mount it on boot.This should be true of both the liveCD mode and the final re-built system. Are you using a liveCD ?.

Hi,

No all i have done is created a linux server boot USB and started off the installation process. Im now upto the storage section and i wanted to check what options to select here to avoid breaking my current 2 x 3TB RAID0 array as per screenshot.

Is my next step to create an LVM for the array?

Originally Posted by marty1980 I want the OS to be installed onto the USB drive the installation is running off.

That's probably not supported by the installer. After all, you'll have to create at least one partition for the root FS and format it, and then what would happen to the files needed by the installer?

Create an install medium using a separate USB stick, and you should see the other USB device appearing as an available storage option.

Originally Posted by marty1980 Is my next step to create an LVM for the array?

No. You should not create anything at all for the array, as the kernel has already detected it and assigned it the device name "/dev/md127".

Side note: If you're installing Linux to a USB stick (as in, not an actual hard drive attached via USB), keep in mind that these devices contains neither the advanced flash controllers nor the high-quality flash chips found in SSDs. Compared to an SSD, a USB stick can handle a very limited number of rewrites.

If you want to install a full Linux distribution to a USB stick and actually use it regularly:

1. You probably shouldn't, as it will wear out the stick rather quickly
2. If you insist, at least use F2FS, which attempts to do wear-leveling at the filesystem level