Hack 64 Migrate Software RAID 1 to RAID 5

Move an existing software RAID 1 system to RAID 5 without a backup and restore.

After you use a RAID 1 array for some time, you might find that you need to increase the space on the array. Because of the way the RAID 1 array works, a two-disk array is expanded by buying two new larger hard drives. At this point, you might consider migrating over to RAID 5, because you can double your storage space by adding a single drive. A RAID 1 array with two 100-GB drives has only 100 GB of storage while a RAID 5 array with three 100-GB drives has 200 GB of space.

Switching RAID levels normally means a complete backup and restore for the server, which requires the temporary use of a fourth drive to store the system while you create the RAID 5 array. This, of course, defeats one of the reasons to consider RAID 5—doubling the storage of a RAID 1 array by purchasing a single drive. With a Knoppix disc, you can migrate from a software RAID 1 array to a software RAID 5 array without backing up the system to a fourth disc. This hack goes through this migration step by step.

Here is the hypothetical situation for this migration. The complete root partition exists on /dev/md0, which is a 20 GB RAID 1 array that spans two 20-GB drives, which are /dev/hda1 and /dev/hdb1. The /etc/raidtab for this configuration is listed below:

raiddev /dev/md0

        raid-level      1

        nr-raid-disks   2

        nr-spare-disks  0

        chunk-size      4

        persistent-superblock 1

        device          /dev/hda1

        raid-disk       0

        device          /dev/hdb1

        raid-disk     1

To convert this array to a three-disk 40-GB RAID 5 array, add a third 20 GB partition at /dev/hdc1. I have already used cfdisk (you could use fdisk or other programs as well) to create this partition and set it with the fd partition type (just like /dev/hda1 and /dev/hdb1), and Linux automatically detects it as a RAID partition. The RAID 1 array can temporarily survive on a single drive, and a RAID 5 array can temporarily survive on two drives, so you can do something similar to what was done in [Hack #63] and disable drives from one array to add them to the other, then finally add the final drive once all the files have been copied. Sound scary? Well, it can be, so make sure that you already have tape backups of important data, just in case. Remember, RAID safeguards against a drive failure; it is not a substitute for backups.

First, create directories for the old and new RAID, mount the old RAID device, and copy its raidtab file to Knoppix:

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo mkdir /mnt/md0 /mnt/md1

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo mount /dev/md0 /mnt/md0

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo cp /mnt/md0/etc/raidtab /etc/

Now edit /etc/raidtab and change /dev/hdb1 from a raid-disk to a failed-disk:

        device          /dev/hdb1

        raid-disk     1

        device          /dev/hdb1

        failed-disk     1

Then remove it from the current array:

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo raidsetfaulty /dev/md0 /dev/hdb1

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo raidhotremove /dev/md0 /dev/hdb1

Now that /dev/hdb1 is removed from the RAID 1 array, you can create the RAID 5 array by using it and the new hard drive /dev/hdc1. Make sure to set /dev/hda1 as a failed disk in this configuration, so it is not overwritten when you create the new RAID. The /etc/raidtab file looks like this:

raiddev /dev/md0

        raid-level      1

        nr-raid-disks   2

        nr-spare-disks  0

        chunk-size      4

        persistent-superblock 1

        device          /dev/hda1

        raid-disk       0

        device          /dev/hdb1

        failed-disk     1

raiddev /dev/md1

        raid-level      5

        nr-raid-disks   3

        nr-spare-disks  0

        persistent-superblock 1

        parity-algorithm        left-symmetric

        chunk-size      32

        device          /dev/hdb1

        raid-disk       0

        device          /dev/hdc1

        raid-disk       1

        device          /dev/hda1

        failed-disk       2

Now you can create the new RAID 5 array with:

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo mkraid --really-force /dev/md1

You must run mkraid with the --really-force option, because /dev/hdb1 already has RAID signatures from /dev/md0 (the RAID 1 array), and by default, mkraid does not overwrite an existing RAID with a new one. Since /dev/hda1 is listed as a failed drive, you can now format /dev/md1 (the RAID 5 array) and mount it without the risk of overwriting anything from /dev/md0 (the RAID 1 array). Then you can copy the entire system from md0 to md1 using the find command introduced in [Hack #61] :

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo mkfs -t xfs -f /dev/md1

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo mount -o rw /dev/md1 /mnt/md1

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ cd /mnt/md0

knoppix@tty0[md0]$ sudo sh -c "find . -xdev -print0 | cpio -pa0V /mnt/md1"

Once the filesystem is copied, unmount the RAID 1 array /dev/md0, because you need it stopped before you can add its final drive /dev/hda1 to your new RAID 5 array, /dev/md1:

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo umount /dev/md0

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo raidstop /dev/md0

With the RAID 1 array stopped, you no longer need the md0 configuration in /etc/raidtab; remove it and also change md1 so that /dev/hda1 is no longer failed. Your new /etc/raidtab should look like this:

raiddev /dev/md1

        raid-level      5

        nr-raid-disks   3

        nr-spare-disks  0

        persistent-superblock 1

        parity-algorithm        left-symmetric

        chunk-size      32

        device          /dev/hdb1

        raid-disk       0

        device          /dev/hdc1

        raid-disk       1

        device          /dev/hda1

        raid-disk       2

With the final disk restored, add it to the RAID 5 with this command:

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ sudo raidhotadd /dev/md1 /dev/hda1

You can watch it sync with the rest of the array by monitoring /proc/mdstat:

knoppix@tty0[knoppix]$ watch cat /proc/mdstat

While the new partition is being restored, take this time to copy over the new /etc/raidtab to /mnt/md1/etc/, and edit your /etc/fstab and lilo or grub configuration so that it references /dev/md1 instead of /dev/md0. Once the RAID finishes recovering the new drive, you should be able to reboot into your new RAID 5 partition.

6.14.1 See Also

• The Software RAID HOWTO: /usr/share/doc/raidtools2/Software-RAID.HOWTO on your Knoppix disc.

• The raidhotadd, mkraid, raidstop, and other RAID tools manpages (type man commandname in a console).