RAID Mirror Newbie Questions

[Meehael]

Hi,

I have had a 2TB SATA disk for about half a year and I plan on getting another disk to put it in mirror mode, but I have a few questions before that.

1. Once I install the second disk in RAID Mirror mode, will the data get copied to the new disk the first time I start the computer?

2. Will I get some kind of notification if a disk in RAID dies? What kind of a notification?

Thank you

 

[mv2devnull]

Those do depend on whether you will have pure software, fake-, or hardware RAID.

 

[greenhawk]

the above poster covers the second point accuractly as it does effect what happens greatly.

As to the first, some of the offerings will allow it, but I would still avoid it as it is possible the wrong drive will be detected as the "original" and the empty drive will be mirrored to the drive with data on it. I would expect this sort of feature on a good hardware raid controller, but I do not think you will be looking at a raid controller worth more than 2 drives and will probably go software raid (windows, which will want to format the drives) or bois raid which could do any of the options (ie: format all, select the wrong drive ect).

And if the drive is a OS drive, it gets a little more tricky as windows's does not like the drive controller changing under itself without a bit of prep work. (ie: not just a add and go approach).

 

[mv2devnull]

Intel RST management tool boasts "RAID migration" capability. Not automatic.

Linux software RAID can for certainty create a "degraded" RAID1 array from the new drive. One would then sync (offline) data from old drive to the array, fix initrd/fstab, see the system run fine from the array, and lastly add the old disk into the array.


In every case it is very smart and recommended to make and have backups.

 

[Old Hippie]

RAID1 is not a back-up if that's your intention.

Any decent back-up needs to be removed from the machine after a back-up procedure is completed.