Setting Up Software RAID 6 with Virtual Disks with VirtualBox on Ubuntu Server 12.04

With virtual disks, set up a quick RAID 6 proof of concept

Published on by nick

Tags: uwsgi, django, nginx

I'm preparing to build a file server with 15-20 TB usable space while employing Ubuntu's software RAID 6 for 2 disk failure. I gathered up my laundry list of hardware components, Asus motherboard, 8 GB DDR3 memory, 4-core AMD CPU, 750 watt power supply, nice case from Fractal Designs and multiple Western Digital 3-4 TB hard drives. Add to that a DVD drive and some other parts and you've got a nice computer.

But then, the RAID 6 design comes into play. Since I'm installing Ubuntu 12.04 on this system, I've opted to use its software RAID solution. I've read that even though it's software based, it still works pretty well. Many articles out there state almost definitely that hardware is better than software. But with the software becoming more efficient and the program that does the work, mdadm, getting better, software RAID might be a good option for small to medium sized operations. Plus, if there isn't much else on the server, the resources available can actually deal with the RAID processes.

There are a couple ways to set this RAID up. The first is to use the installation disk. If you have the hard disks in place at the time of installing Ubuntu, then the installation disk utility can be used to partition and configure the RAID set up. See this video for more information.

Another way is to set up your server/workstation in advance and then when the drives become available, you can set up the RAID with mdadm. A great article describing this process can be found here. This is pretty straight forward and can be completed in about the time it takes to format all your drives.

When the RAID configuration is complete, you'll have a device called something like md0 located at /dev. You can then mount this you normally would like any other drive or shared device...

First create your mount point:

sudo mkdir /mnt/raid6

Then edit your /etc/fstab by adding this line:

/dev/md0 /mnt/raid6 ext4 defaults 1 2

Finally, run mount -a to simulate boot and mount all devices. You can then run some commands to test it out.

ls /mnt/raid6
sudo mkdir /mnt/raid6/backup_data
ls /mnt/raid6/backup_data

Happy RAID-ing...

Comments

Comments powered by Disqus

 Blog Search

  Popular Tags

django, ubuntu, mod_wsgi, apache, authentication, python, tls, linux, forms, ssl, virtualenv, dell, uwsgi, bash, nginx, raid, customer-service, centurylink, ux, software-companies, rais, form, centos, password, certificates, tinymce, mdadm, dual-boot, file-server, virtualhost, gluster, IT, blog, get, networking, piplight, distributed-file-system, big companies, bitnami, cygwin, windows, samba, scripting, pygments, post, programming-language, ui, lampstack, outsourcing, isp, security, usabillity, provision, php, shared-hosting, netflix, git, flatpages, syntax-highlighting, virtualbox, hg, redirect, usability, prg, acls, change-password, complex, view tags...

 Questions/Comments?

Drop me a line... [email protected]
Follow me on Twitter... @nicorellius
Share on Facebook...