NAS 5: mdadm adventures – Staying Sane … or tryin'

Since I decided to proceed with software RAID, I had to figure out how to get it up and running. After browsing a few articles, I followed the outline of this one to set up mine. I made several errors and I guess that’s something to learn from. I think I’ll keep it short so you can see what the process is without going through a whole lot of text.

First I created the partitions on /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc my two HDs. Refer to NAS 3 post for explanation. I used Gparted to do this, creating a primary partition and left it unformatted on both devices.

Next I ran the following command:

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 \
 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1

Followed by this:

mdadm --detail --scan > /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

I hit a snag on 3, where I was getting a permission denied error. I found this post which solved the issue for me
So in effect I ended it up running the following commands:
```
sudo -i
mdadm --detail --scan > /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
```
To use the RAID I’ve got to format and make it available for use (mounting). So following the above commands I enter the following:
```
mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0
mkdir /raid1
mount /dev/md0 /raid1
```
The final bit is to edit the /etc/fstab file to edit that at the end of the commands in 6, type the following:
```
gedit /etc/fstab
```
You should see a graphical editor. Add this line to the end of the text on a new line (please use tab to separate the text instead of spaces):
```
/dev/md0     /raid1    ext4    noatime,rw  0   0 
```

And voila, I’ve got an up and running RAID.

I open up a disk explorer (open any folder and point to the file system) and right click on raid1 and choose “sharing options”. When I check “Share this folder”, I get the option to install Samba. I’m currently installing it. Once done, I should have a shared folder called RAID1 available to everyone!

I’ll just wait until the resync is done. Then, I’ll do a reboot to see if things are working as expected. If they are, my mission will be complete.

I expect I’ll have to work on some networking permissions to ensure that all computers on the home network are able to access the folder. I may also have to ensure (through firewall rules?) that this folder is accessible only via the home network.