On 1/2/25 10:53, Andrew M.A. Cater wrote:
On Tue, Dec 31, 2024 at 06:54:55PM -0500, gene heskett wrote:
Good question Marc. I'm searching for someone who knows how to combine 4
ea 4T SSD's into one volume for use with amanda, the lvm docs are
somewhat confusing, lacking the context that actually teaches.
NOTE: This is not guaranteed advice. Armbian is NOT Debian and the version
name you quote is based on Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
This advice is largely taken from Jeff Geerling - who spends a lot of
time with ARM based single board computers at
https://www.jeffgeerling.com/blog/2021/htgwa-create-raid-array-linux-mdadm
Operating system: Armbian Noble - you don't say whether this is a version
with a desktop or not. I'm assuming the minimal server version from their
website - from 17th November 2024 - 472MB download.
Assumptions:
============
Assuming you want RAID 10 (from a later reply in this thread) and you're
going to *just* use one single RAID volume and not also use LVM.
Assuming also that you're going to format the disks as GPT, use the full
extent of the disks and format the partition on each one of them as a RAID
partition.
[The alternative is to mark the whole disk as usable by RAID which means that
you may need to remember to zero superblocks and so on if/when you re-use
them elsewhere].
All commands below are given as sudo commands
Run the command lsblk to list all the drives on your system.
sudo lsblk
Note down the device names of the drives you wish to use.
For the purposes of the command I give below, I'm assuming they are
/dev/sda to /dev/sdd and that partitions will be /dev/sda1, sdb1 and so on.
Jeff uses wipefs to wipe the drives - if they've never had anything on
them, you may not need to do this.
He also uses a command called sgdisk to partion the disks - I suspect
that there are equivalents with parted.
sudo apt install sgdisk
unforch sgdisk does not appear to be available on armbian. Suitable
substitute? Display is wayland so X is out. root not allowed.
sudo sgdisk -n 1:0:0 /dev/sda
sudo sgdisk -n 1:0:0 /dev/sdb
sudo sgdisk -n 1:0:0 /dev/sdc
sudo sgdisk -n 1:0:0 /dev/sdd
Run lsblk again and you should see /dev/sda1, /dev/sdb1 and so on.
You may already have mdadm - if not, install it with
sudo apt install mdadm
Creating the RAID10 with mdadm
==============================
sudo mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sd[a-d]1
(This is one line - if it gets reformatted, all the commands with dashes are
-- double dashes. Similarly in the following commands)
Verifying the RAID10 exists and is working
==========================================
sudo mdadm --detail /dev/md0
Make the array persistent by adding it to /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
===============================================================
sudo mdadm --detail --scan --verbose | sudo tee -a /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf
Format the array - this is using "lazy" formatting to avoid long initialisation
===============================================================================
sudo mkfs.ext4 -m 0 -E lazy_itable_init=0,lazy_journal_init=0 /dev/md0
Check with lsblk for md0 and mount the array
============================================
lsblk should show the individual elements of /dev/md0
Make a mount point and mount the array
sudo mkdir /mnt/raid0
sudo mount /dev/md0 /mnt/raid0
sudo df -h should show it
Add it to /etc/fstab
====================
If you don't add the mount to /etc/fstab, it won't be mounted after you reboot!
$ sudo blkid
...
/dev/md0: UUID="5d3b012c-e5f6-49d1-9014-1c61e982594f" TYPE="ext4"
Then, edit /etc/fstab (e.g. sudo nano /etc/fstab) and add a line like the
following to the end:
UUID=5d3b012c-e5f6-49d1-9014-1c61e982594f /mnt/raid0 ext4 defaults 0 0
Save that file and reboot.
Note: If genfstab is available on your system, use it instead. Much less likely
to asplode things:
sudo genfstab -U /mnt/raid0 >> /etc/fstab.
banana pi-m5. so far armbian noble has it covered. The only thing I haven't
tried on them is linuxcnc as it depends on a specific version of gpio for
some of its 50 microsecond IRQ response time.
I have found another post from a Debian developer whose experience with
specifically the BananaPi M-5 was not useful who specifically suggested
against it and similar SBCs with Amlogic chipsets.
How are you connecting your SSDs? Via USB3 or via good quality SATA leads
and high quality power supply?
If you find that connection via USB3 doesn't work well for you and that
the board seems underpowered, you will be completely out on your own again
I think.
Hope this helps - all the very best, as ever,
Andy Cater
(amaca...@debian.org).
Thanks Andy, Bookmarked FFR.
Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
- Louis D. Brandeis
.
Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
- Louis D. Brandeis
.
Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
- Louis D. Brandeis
.
Cheers, Gene Heskett, CET.
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author, 1940)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
- Louis D. Brandeis
