To get started, find the identifiers for the raw disks that you will be using: Things to keep in mind: Since two copies of the data are maintained, only half of the disk space will be usable.Requirements: minimum of 2 storage devices.Each disk in a RAID 1 array gets a full copy of the data, providing redundancy in the event of a device failure. The RAID 1 array type is implemented by mirroring data across all available disks. Your RAID 0 array should now automatically be assembled and mounted each boot. echo '/dev/md0 /mnt/md0 ext4 defaults,nofail,discard 0 0' | sudo tee -a /etc/fstab.sudo mdadm -detail -scan | sudo tee -a /etc/mdadm/nfĪfterwards, you can update the initramfs, or initial RAM file system, so that the array will be available during the early boot process:Īdd the new filesystem mount options to the /etc/fstab file for automatic mounting at boot:.You can automatically scan the active array and append the file by typing: To make sure that the array is reassembled automatically at boot, we will have to adjust the /etc/mdadm/nf file. The new filesystem is mounted and accessible. OutputFilesystem Size Used Avail Use% Mounted on Skip this section for now if you have not yet set up any arrays. This section can be referenced to learn how to quickly reset your component storage devices prior to testing a new RAID level. If you wish to follow along, you will likely want to reuse your storage devices after each section.

Throughout this guide, we will be introducing the steps to create a number of different RAID levels. Depending on the array type, you will need at minimum between two to four storage devices. If you are using DigitalOcean, you can use Block Storage volumes to fill this role. As such, you will need some drives to configure.

Multiple raw storage devices available on your server: We will be demonstrating how to configure various types of arrays on the server.

To learn more about RAID and to get a better understanding of what RAID level is right for you, read our introduction to RAID article.

A basic understanding of RAID terminology and concepts: While this guide will touch on some RAID terminology in passing, a more complete understanding is very useful.

To learn how to set up an account with these privileges, follow our Ubuntu 16.04 initial server setup guide.

A non-root user with sudo privileges on an Ubuntu 16.04 server: The steps in this guide will be completed with a sudo user.

In order to complete the steps in this guide, you should have:

In this guide, we will go over a number of different RAID configurations that can be set up using an Ubuntu 16.04 server. Administrators have great flexibility in coordinating their individual storage devices and creating logical storage devices that have greater performance or redundancy characteristics. The mdadm utility can be used to create and manage storage arrays using Linux’s software RAID capabilities.

Adding disks to softraid