On Tue, 31 May 2022 05:27:37 -0500
o1bigtenor <o1bigtenor@???> wrote:

> On Tue, May 31, 2022 at 1:00 AM tito via Dng <dng@???> wrote:
> >
> > On Mon, 30 May 2022 17:03:56 -0500
> > o1bigtenor via Dng <dng@???> wrote:
> >
> > > Greetings
> > >
> > > I am investing in a new system.
> > > (Ryzen 7 5800X + Ryzen 570 gpu)
> > >
> > > The old system has a raid 10 array that I would like to put into the new system.
> > >
> > > The new system is going to add 2 M2 drives that I want to set up as raid 1
> > > and this is for use for /EFI, /boot, /, /var, /usr and swap.
> > > There are 2 2.5" SDDs that are going to be set up as raid 1 for /home.
> > > Want to be running Devuan daedalus.
> > >
> > > The idea is to transfer the previously used drives from the old system
> > > into the new system.
> > >
> > > The question:
> > > is it better to load the system and then add the hard drives
> > >
> > > or
> > >
> > > do I move the drives into the system and then install the system with
> > > the drives at the same time.
> > >
> > > (2 step process or 1 step process.)
> > Hi,
> > I've done this before and it could be done in both ways
> > without problems, but to avoid confusion in the install
> > and disk format step I nowadays prefer to do it in multiple steps:
> > 1) install system with only the needed system drives.
> > 2) when the system is installed and fully setup add the raid arrays one by one
> > 3) assemble the array
> > 4) modify /etc/fstab, /etcmdadm/mdadm.conf, update-initramfs
> > 5) add scrubbing to crontab
> > 6) add the drives to smartd.conf
> > 7) reboot, check that array is up at boot
> > 8) go to step 3 for the next array and so on until done.
> >
>
> Thank you for the recommendations!!
>
> I'm not sure what # 4 through 6 are doing and how to do them or
> why to do them.

4) you should add the newly added arrays to /etc/fstab so that they are mounted at boot, run as root:

blkid /dev/mdX
/dev/mdX: UUID="xxxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx" BLOCK_SIZE="4096" TYPE="ext4"

then open /etc/fstab with ab editor of your choice and add the line:

UUID=xxxxxxxx-xxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx  /dir_where_you_want_it_to_be_mounted           ext4    defaults        0       2

then to update /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf run as root:

mdadm --examine --scan

and copy any missing ARRAY definitions to /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf

then to update you initramfs with the updated files run as root:

update-initramfs -k all -u

5) about  drive scrubbing read https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Scrubbing_the_drives
      This is done in some longer time intervals automatically by devuan but on systems
        where I care I run scrubbing daily when the system is idle and therefore I add
      a line to /etc/crontab:

00 11   * * *   root    echo check >> /sys/block/mdX/md/sync_action

6) You should install smartmontools to monitor your harddisks's health status
      see man smartd and man smartd.conf

Ciao,
Tito



>
> Please advise.
>
> TIA