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John
John
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Hi all,

I have started using my ClearOS box as a media server and I ran out of disk space pretty fast.
My harddisk setup is in RAID 1 so I have 2 mirrored disks.
I want to change that to RAID 0, so I can use double the storage space.

Does anyone have experience with doing this ... ?!?
I was thinking about taking the next steps, but before I start doing this I would like some feedback:
Update ClearOS to the latest version (currently version 7.8.1 Community).
Make a backup of the settings.
Make a backup of the files in my Flexshares (just to be sure).
Make an Image backup of the current setup with Acronis.
Setup RAID 0.
Restore the image backup with Acronis.
Resize the partition of the Flexshares.

If the above fails:
A clean install of ClearOS with Easy2Boot, including all the apps from the Marketplace (not sure yet how to do this, because I think that my DVD player does not work anymore and I never installed ClearOS from USB with E2B).
Updating to the latest version.
Restoring the settings.
Restore all the Flexshares data.

Please advice,

John

Ps. Because I don't know if I can trust my DVD player, I would like to know where I can download the latest stable image of ClearOS, so I can put it on a USB with E2B, while my ClearOS gateway is still operational.
Monday, August 03 2020, 05:45 PM
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  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, August 18 2020, 05:04 PM - #Permalink
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    The current thinking about RAID is to do it in software. ClearOS is actually pretty good for that because you can use MDADM with LVM. It was pretty easy to use a bunch of same sized drives and RAID the partitions rather than the drives. I set up a system with 4 SATA drives and no hardware RAID. The OS was mirrored across all 4 drives so they'd all have to break before it would not boot. Then I put /var in a RAID5 array of partitions giving it one drive protection. It was Logical Volume Manager and MDADM working seamlessly together. Very cool and not difficult.

    I did it this way because I actually board a RAID card and the performance was not as good as software RAID. Generally you should not use the halfarsed RAID built into the motherboard since it's really mostly software RAID anyway. In fact all RAID is software, even the ones on the PCIe cards as that is a little computer (PowerPC) running some software.
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  • Accepted Answer

    John
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    Friday, August 07 2020, 07:31 PM - #Permalink
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    Thanks guys,

    Even when I did not understand much of what you wrote ... I was still able to fix it.
    All I know was that this fake RAID was no longer supported (since 7.5) and that it was a driver issue.
    I decided to go old skool and started installing version 7.1 from a USB drive ... when it was still supported, because I used it before on my previous setup a long time ago.
    This version did it for me and I was able to update to COS 7.8.1

    It took me a while, but I did it ... :D
    Now I have much more disk space and again a RAID1 setup, so I won't lose my system when one of those disks fails.
    I was lucky that I still had this image, because otherwise I would have been funked, because I could not find it online.
    If these fake RAIDs are not supported with version 8, then I won't use it.

    Greetings,

    John
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  • Accepted Answer

    Thursday, August 06 2020, 12:54 PM - #Permalink
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    John, You didn't reply indicating which Silicon Image Controller you are using - only the Silicon Image SiI 0680 appears to be supported by dmraid according to your list... Use lspci to identify your Si Raid Controller... Maybe you should do more research here as you have the same access to Google that I have :-) Never used Fake Raid on Linux and certainly do not intend to in the future...

    Regardless of controller type, you would be better served in my opinion by using mdadm aka software raid. If there is something about the BIOS on your Raid controller that doesn't allow you do use mdadm, then I would ditch that controller, especially if it is a 3112/3114 or 3132/3134.
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  • Accepted Answer

    John
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    Thursday, August 06 2020, 12:13 PM - #Permalink
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    Thanks guys,

    Here is the info you requested:
    # dmraid -l
    asr : Adaptec HostRAID ASR (0,1,10)
    ddf1 : SNIA DDF1 (0,1,4,5,linear)
    hpt37x : Highpoint HPT37X (S,0,1,10,01)
    hpt45x : Highpoint HPT45X (S,0,1,10)
    isw : Intel Software RAID (0,1,5,01)
    jmicron : JMicron ATARAID (S,0,1)
    lsi : LSI Logic MegaRAID (0,1,10)
    nvidia : NVidia RAID (S,0,1,10,5)
    pdc : Promise FastTrack (S,0,1,10)
    sil : Silicon Image(tm) Medley(tm) (0,1,10)
    via : VIA Software RAID (S,0,1,10)
    dos : DOS partitions on SW RAIDs

    Please advice,

    John
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  • Accepted Answer

    Thursday, August 06 2020, 08:12 AM - #Permalink
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    From Tony's post, If it is dmraid, I wonder if the dm_mod driver is not loading during the install. There is a way to load modules during the install but you'll need to google it.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Thursday, August 06 2020, 02:28 AM - #Permalink
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    John, From your picture it would appear that you are using WD Blue desktop drives in a RAID. WD Blue drives are not rated for RAID use. Since you are intending these for use in a RAID 1, rather than in a parity RAID configuration, you will probably get away with it. Not recommended.

    Also note that to use Silicon Image 'Fake' RAID you need the dmraid driver, and therein lies a problem you need to be aware of. Readhat announced :-

    dmraid has been deprecated since the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 release. It will be removed in a future major release of Red Hat Enterprise Linux. For more information, see Deprecated Functionality in the Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.5 Release Notes.


    Which Silicon Image RAID controller are you using? Running "dmraid -l" on ClearOS 7.8.1...

    [root@danda ~]# dmraid -l
    asr : Adaptec HostRAID ASR (0,1,10)
    ddf1 : SNIA DDF1 (0,1,4,5,linear)
    hpt37x : Highpoint HPT37X (S,0,1,10,01)
    hpt45x : Highpoint HPT45X (S,0,1,10)
    isw : Intel Software RAID (0,1,5,01)
    jmicron : JMicron ATARAID (S,0,1)
    lsi : LSI Logic MegaRAID (0,1,10)
    nvidia : NVidia RAID (S,0,1,10,5)
    pdc : Promise FastTrack (S,0,1,10)
    sil : Silicon Image(tm) Medley(tm) (0,1,10)
    via : VIA Software RAID (S,0,1,10)
    dos : DOS partitions on SW RAIDs

    We see only the Silicon Image "Medley" listed. This is the Silicon Image SiI 0680 ATA-133. Is this what you are trying to use?
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  • Accepted Answer

    Wednesday, August 05 2020, 08:43 PM - #Permalink
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    It looks like you are using a motherboard RAID (aka fake RAID). Normally it is recommended not to do this and to use the Linux RAID utility mdadm. I believe the ClearOS installer can do this for you. I think it is quite common or normal for the fir the installer not to recognise a fake RAID.
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  • Accepted Answer

    John
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    Wednesday, August 05 2020, 08:02 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi all,

    I was unable to install ClearOS 7.5 on the new RAID1 setup.
    Here are some pictures that clarify it.
    I created a new logical drive RAID1
    Confirmed that it was shown in the BIOS
    The ClearOS 7.5 installer does not see the logical disk

    I installed ClearOS 7 on this pc before, without any problems ... although I might have used an external DVD player ... can't remember anymore.

    Please advice,

    John
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  • Accepted Answer

    John
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    Wednesday, August 05 2020, 05:36 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi all,

    Just for your information ... I was able too boot from the latest ClearOS 7.7.2.280072 image from USB, but with the following error message:
    "Not contiguous"
    I still had an older version (7.5.0.228724) that still boots up without an error message from USB.
    I did not finish the installation yet, because I wanted to post this first.
    I choose to use version 7.5, so wish me luck.

    Greetings,

    John
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  • Accepted Answer

    John
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    Tuesday, August 04 2020, 07:55 PM - #Permalink
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    Hi all,

    Thanks for responding.

    I had the opportunity to get 2 bigger HD's, so I decided to keep using RAID1 and start a clean install.
    Not sure yet if it will work, installing from USB, but I will be able to do it without destroying the original HD's.
    So in theory when all fails, I will still be able to get my gateway back online by restoring the original HD's.

    Greetings,

    John
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  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, August 04 2020, 11:23 AM - #Permalink
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    I mean handle the disks separately.

    I can't edit posts with Safari so then a new post.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, August 04 2020, 11:20 AM - #Permalink
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    I don't want be the smart guy but is it wise to convert to RAID 0? You know if you lose one disk everything is gone? What I should do is handle the separately. Just format them XFS or EXT4 and mount them.
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  • Accepted Answer

    Tuesday, August 04 2020, 07:02 AM - #Permalink
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    The latest iso is for 7.7 and is here.
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