Re: [PLUG] Best tool to image a dynamic disk?

[Greg Helledy <gregsonh@gra-inc.com>]

> Brent gave a better, more detailed answer. I just want to point out that
> if the only purpose of these disks is to act as physical disks for
> mdadm, you're probably better off reformatting to standard mbr/gpt.
> There's no reason to use a proprietary and poorly documented partition
> layout, especially if there are no pluses to doing so. It's actually
> hindering your flexibility.

This is what ClearOS set up for us.  I wonder why it did that.  I 
certainly didn't mean to choose an option that was more complicated.
> If the raid array you have setup is empty, then it'll be easy to
> reformat. If it's not empty, you could back it up, redo the array, then
> restore. Otherwise you'll have to fail one disk, reformat it, add back
> to the array, then let it rebuild. Then repeat for each drive. Unless
> your using RAID 0, in which case you're hosed. :)

I'm not inclined to disturb anything on a working system.  It is RAID 1.
> If there are other partitions used by Windows that you're dual booting
> this system with, then things get complicated. You'll just have to live
> with it unless you can change things to basic disks. You'd have to
> backup the Linux stuff as the mdadm partitions can't be "converted" by
> Windows.
Each drive has three partitions:  swap, /boot and /.   There is no 
Windows on this machine.  I am curious how things ended being configured 
this way...I may have chosen an option at setup time if it was described 
as better or more-capable, without understanding what it meant.  I am 
certain I didn't choose anything for reasons of Windows compatibility.
> I checked, and my favorite imaging tool (Clonezilla) can technically
> back up dynamic disks just fine. It can't restore them though, so no
> real point to it then. ;)

If I can make a backup, that should be good enough--if the hardware 
dies, I'll slap the backup drive into a new system, update the data 
files and run a system update, and go from there.  I shouldn't need to 
do a restore.


--
Greg Helledy
GRA, Incorporated
P:  +1 215-884-7500
F:  +1 215-884-1385
www.gra.aero
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