The method weve tried is by doing a fullimage restore via our acronis cloud software, which normally works great. Linux has supported the idea of software raid, particularly raid 1 or disk mirroring for a long time. If you are used to lvm then you are likely used to growing lvs logical volumes, but what we grow here is the pv physical volume that sits on the md device raid array. We have had good results using dd and netcat to pull physical servers into vmware virtual machines. I have seen some of the environments are configured with software raid and lvm volume groups are built using raid devices. It addresses a specific version of the software raid layer, namely the 0. Now in this article i will show you steps to addremove partitions from your raid partition.
I found that the live cd for p2v has mdadm on it, so i can start the raid manually from tty2, but i cant figure out how to get p2v to redetect the drives and im not sure it will even detect the raid devices if i start them. Here, we are using software raid and mdadm package to create raid. Expanding a software raid on debian by migrationg to new large. During cloning of powered on linux machines, converter standalone does not recognize source volumes that are part of a software raid configuration also referred to as multiple disk, or md, configurations. For this setup i decided to create a software raid 1 with the 2 discs in the system. Hyperv create and use vhd of windows 10 with disk2vhd. How to set up a software raid on linux addictivetips.
It should tell you that you have the right raid personality eg. As for converter supporting software raid, that is a very complex problem that not a lot of conversion tools dont support. I have a physical production webserver running ubuntu 10. Experiencing technology you are visiting this site using. Introduction to linux a hands on guide this guide was created as an overview of the linux operating system, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
A raid 1 configuration is a simple mirror of two hard discs. In linux, the program mdadm we like to pronounce it madam, is what well use to set up the array. This document describes how to create, manage, and recover the raid system using the minnow valueadded software provided by hewlett packard enterprise. Discussion in servers started by seedubya, jun 2, 2016. I have a physical linux server with two sata drives using software raid. With this program, users can create a software raid array in a matter of minutes. Redundant array of inexpensive disks or drives, or redundant array of independent disks is a data storage virtualization technology that combines multiple physical disk drive components into one or more logical units for the purposes of data redundancy, performance improvement, or both. This is only even plausible because it is in a mirror raid 1 so in theory the partitions should be fine after the operation and the filesystem will still know where the data is. The best way to create a raid array on linux is to use the mdadm tool. The ultimate in flexibility and reliability combines linux software raid redundant array of inexpensive disks and lvm linux volume manager. My problem however is that my linux box is using i think software raid 5 and the few software that i saw didnt play well with software raid. Sectorbased copying enhances cloning and conversion speed. A redundant array of independent drives or disks, also known as redundant array of inexpensive drives or disks raid is an term for data storage schemes that divide andor replicate data among multiple hard drives. Creating a software raid array in operating system software is the easiest way to go.
Build your own raid storage server with linux the potent combination of linux raid, sata and lvm can provide you with a powerful and inexpensive storage server. Breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware converter. We have lvm also in linux to configure mirrored volumes but software raid recovery is much easier in disk failures compare to linux lvm. I will explain this in more detail in the upcoming chapters. Its a common scenario to use software raid on linux virtual machines in azure to present multiple attached data disks as a single raid device. Minnow redundant boot strategy for software raid1 in linux is a solution that uses indistro opensource software to build and create a twodisk raid1 redundant boot volume in uefi mode. This is the raid layer that is the standard in linux2. Disk mirroring is a great way to gain some insurance against a single disk failure bringing down a critical system, as everything rewritten to one disk is also written to the other disk.
By default, converter standalone has a 20 minute timeout when waiting for the helper virtual machine to start up during linux p2v conversion. Windows 8 comes with everything you need to use software raid, while the linux package mdadm is listed. Creating software raid0 stripe on two devices using. Converter is a pretty well made tool for being free. Raid devices, as most devices, have an entry in dev usually of the form devmd999 e. We could find out md device detail with below commands. Yeah, it blew my mind too, that converter doesnt support converting from an extremely common setup for lowend lab configs to vms. Sysinternals is well known of their wide range of free tools to manage, troubleshoot and diagnose windows systems and applications. Configuring software raid 1 in centos 7 linux scripts hub. To overcome this i pefromed a linux dd of the dell server to an intermediate standalone server that doesnt use a raid controller standard sata hdd, peformed a windows repair and then did a p2v from this intermediate standalone server to create the vm image.
P2v migration fails for system which uses software raid. Solved how to convert linux box with software raid5 to. Raid can be created, if there are minimum 2 number of disk connected to a raid controller and make a logical volume or more drives can be added in an array according to defined raid levels. Software raid are available without using physical hardware those are called as software raid. Are raid disks really universally unsupported for vmware converter. Linux partition layout with raid1 and lvm experiencing. This guide explains how to set up software raid1 on an already running lvm system debian etch. P2v of a dell windows server with hw raid oracle community. Falko timme is an experienced linux administrator and founder of timme hosting. The grub bootloader will be configured in such a way that the system will still be able to boot if one of the hard drives fails no matter which one. Hi, im in trouble converting p2v a fedora 7 linux box into esxi 4. How to resize software raid partition in linux golinuxhub. It is tricky verifying as the machine is remote, and the users dont have a clue. Turning a running linux system into a kvm instance on another.
Create the partitions you want to include in your raid set. The same instruction should work on other linux distribution, eg. While configuring raid it is always advised to add a spare partition to your raid device so that in case. This is really helpful when translating software from one language to another because you can now have both language versions running at the same time on the same desktop. If you have 2 x 500 gb hdd then total space become 1 tb. P2v linux physical to virtual kvm no automated tools. Once im sure the restore process is working correctly i think i should set the bios to uefi, reconfig the raid as 5x1tb raid 5 with spare or even 4x1 with 2 spare. Are raid disks really universally unsupported for vmware. For further lvm documentation, please see the linux lvm howto. To make the raid working easily in linux, the tool called mdadm is used. A raid 056 on the other hand spreads the data over each disk in the set in chunks, theres no undoing it without destroying everything.
Find answers to p2v dell raid 5 servers to hyper v from the expert community at experts exchange. So software raid 5, as ill advised as that is, should have any affect on the process. Quiescing and snapshotting of the guest operating system on the source machine before migrating the data ensures conversion reliability. Linux software raid often called mdraid or mdraid makes the use of raid possible without a hardware raid controller. Disk2vhd is a practical free tool by sysinternals, since 2006 a subsidiary of microsoft corporation. I have tried to use vmwares standalone converter but that does not work on a running server with software raid. I have written another article with comparison and difference between various raid types using figures including pros and cons of individual raid types so that you can make an informed decision. Vmware vcenter converter standalone provides an easytouse solution to automate the process of creating vmware virtual machines from physical machines running windows and linux, other virtual machine formats, and thirdparty image formats. The way that p2v work is that they read the data out from inside of the os, not by taking it offline and imaging that way. You can use software raid devices for storage repositories or virtual disks. Virtualizing a linux system creating a linux vm p2v. Creating a software raid 1 array in linux takes all of two terminal commands.
I envisage imaging everything, then p2v to my spare server and going from from there. Which one is recommended for file server and database server. By joining our community you will have the ability to post topics, receive our newsletter, use the advanced search, subscribe to threads and access many other special features. Software raid1 configuration and data recovery testing. Make sure this file is on a different disk or it defeats the purpose. There is note in virtv2v guide saying red hat enterprise linux 4 and red hat enterprise linux 5 physical machines with their filesystem root on a software raid md device cannot be converted to virtual machines.
Once we arrive at the filesystem well dig below it into the land of red hat enterprise linux software raid mdraid. Number and name of disk used in raid, like below root. However, this software may not come with the most distributions as a by default. Introduction to vmware vcenter converter standalone 4. This tutorial explains how to view, list, create, add, remove, delete, resize, format, mount and configure raid levels 0, 1 and 5 in linux step by step with practical examples. This article describes how you can shrink and grow existing software raid.
Vmware converter is very powerful tool to provide physical to virtual conversion. How to remove sw raid for vmware converter to work david hrbac. Creating raid 5 striping with distributed parity in. The raid tools are included in almost every major linux distribution. But with the article i will show you the steps to perform online hdd swap in case any one of your disk drive is broken. Sbs 2008 unbootable after partition resize winload. Increase the size of the destination volume with the required amount for the. Unfortunately, this software doesnt come with most distributions by default. The linux box has a software raid 1 disk mdadm that is not recognized by vcenter converter neither using cold clone with converter cd nor using converter standalone.
Mdadm is a commandline utility that allows for quick and easy manipulation of raid devices. Once the device is created, the configuration is normally stored in etcmdadmnf so the raid device will automatically reassembled on boot the commands roughly equivalent to the above plus mounting as raid are. Expanding the capacity of a red hat enterprise linux md raid part 1. Configuring raid1 mirroring on centosrhel linuxtechlab. How to perform disk replacement software raid 1 in linux. This article will guide you through the steps to create a software raid 1 in centos 7 using mdadm. I was looking at possibly using clonezilla and it doesnt support software raid in linux either. Lvm logical volume manager abstracts a logical volume that a filesystem sits on from the physical disk. Implementing linux software raid1 on hpe proliant servers. By default there is no configuration file is available for raid, we must save the configuration file after creating and configuring raid setup in separate file called nf. Virt p2v is comprised of both virt p2v server, included in the virtv2v package, and the p2v client, available from the red hat customer portal as rhel6. Vmware converter standalone can convert offline virtual machines from the. P2v fedora linux box with a software raid disk vmware. Lastly i hope the steps from the article to configure software raid using linear raid on linux was helpful.
In this article i will share the steps to configure software raid 0 i. I have some servers, however, that are using linux software raid, so doing a bitforbit copy of the drive probably is not an option. As the name already tells disk2vhd is a tool to create a virtual hard disk vhd file of an existing windows system. How to set up software raid 0 for windows and linux pc gamer. We are using software raid here, so no physical hardware raid card is required.
If not you can follow my last article where i had explained in detail to do the same. For this purpose, the storage media used for this hard disks, ssds and so forth are simply connected to the computer as individual drives, somewhat like the direct sata ports on the motherboard. Expanding a software raid on debian by migrationg to new large hard disks. Raid mode registered, and that no raid devices are currently active. P2v when physical server uses software raid vmware.
How to set up software raid1 on a running lvm system incl. I was able to create an image of this server, convert to vhdx and fire up a vm in hyper v, however i am getting boot errors and kernel panic now because its referencing the raid, is there a way to remove it and proceed with boot. This howto describes how to use software raid under linux. Learn basic concepts of software raid chunk, mirroring, striping and parity and essential raid device management commands in detail. Breaking a linux software raid 1 for import using vmware. Mdadm is basically a commandline system which allows for easy and quick manipulation of the raid devices. Software raid is one of the greatest feature in linux to protect the data from disk failure. This is fairly straightforward when you are using a plain scsi drive as the source.
You can find more information about software raid in the oracle linux. P2v dell raid 5 servers to hyper v solutions experts. There are many howtos available on the internet that describe several different schemes for utilizing linux software raid to provide mirroring of boot, root, and even other partitions. P2v on nas convert a pcserver to a virtual machine qnap.
The p2v utility lets you convert the operating system and application software on a computer to an oracle vm hardware virtualized guest image. Log in to your red hat account red hat customer portal. The softwareraid howto linux documentation project. In many cases hardware raid controllers are either too expensive or simply unavailablef or a particular system. While configuring raid it is always advised to add a spare partition to your raid device so that in case of any hard disk failure the spare partition can be utilized. How to remove linux software raid1 md raid onthefly so that.