Setting up software RAID in Ubuntu Server
Tuesday, November 4th, 2008
Linux has excellent software-based RAID built into the kernel. Unfortunately information on configuring and maintaining it is sparse. Back in 2003, O’Reilly published Managing RAID on Linux and that book is still mostly up to date, but finding clear instructions on the web for setting up RAID has become a chore.
Here is how to install Ubuntu Server with software RAID 1 (disk mirroring). This guide is for Ubuntu Server 6.06 LTS, but the procedure should be nearly the same for newer versions of Ubuntu and even Debian. We’ve also included a few other tips, like how to ensure you can still boot your server when the first drive fails and how to rebuild when replacing a failed drive.