Help with RAID and Formating Disks
Hello all. I am very new at what I am attempting to do. I have run
Debian in the past and just recently installed it on a new built system
that I am setting up. So please take it easy on the Newbie.
First I built the system with the ASUS Motherboard and AMD-64x2 5800+.
Added 3 - 500gig drives and a DVD/CD writer to access the Downloaded
netinst of Debian. The installation went fine with no problems over the
internet installation. Added all the programs that I thought I would
need and finished the installation. During the installation process it
formatted /dev/sda as ext3 and used the complete disk for the
system/files. I was never given the opportunity to format/partition the
second and third drives. Figured I would get to that when I set up the RAID.
Anyway tried using mdadm but am at a loss what I am trying to do. I
tried the parameters that was called out in the --help file, but kept
getting "not enough devices" errors. I believe the command line I used was:
mdadm -create /dev/md0 -l 5 -n 2 -x 1 -c 32
and in different combo's of the above.
I then figured that as /dev/sdb and /dev/sdc where not partitioned or
formatted, I should do that. But that is where I am completely lost. I
have no idea how to format or partition the other drives.
Tried finding some tools that might help out, but couldn't find anything
that might help. I know I am not using the terminology correctly to
search for the right tools. So came here to see if anyone could help out.
So I guess my question is: Do I have to format/partition each of the
drives before making a RAID or can the mdadm program do this. And what
is the easiest way to set up the RAID.
I figured I could set it up with 2 500gig drives and have the 3rd as the
spare. This system is going to be used for backing up different systems
over the net with BACKUPPC and figured 1 Tb of storage should be enough.
Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks...
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