In your scenario, where the 1st drive has a 30gb partition and the rest is used for data and you have an additional x3 2TB drives ...
Using SnapRAID, the 30gb ubuntu files partition isn't protected, correct? What would happen if that first drive died? Would you need to pop in a new one and do a total Ubuntu server install and set it up before being able to recover the data on disk1?
Thanks,
Russ
Great Guide + But a Snapraid Question
Re: Great Guide + But a Snapraid Question
Hi Russ and welcome to the forums. 
Yes, you're correct on all counts. The 30GB part of drive 1 isn't protected so if it went bang you'd need to install Ubuntu on a new drive and THEN you'd be able to recover the data part of that drive. The reason I've not protected the 30GB OS is because a). It's changing all the time (logs, cache, patches, temp files etc) and so is not ideally suited to snapraid and b). If the drive went bang and it WAS protected you'd STILL need a copy of Ubuntu to be able to recover both the 30GB OS and the data on the rest of the drive.
Ian.
Yes, you're correct on all counts. The 30GB part of drive 1 isn't protected so if it went bang you'd need to install Ubuntu on a new drive and THEN you'd be able to recover the data part of that drive. The reason I've not protected the 30GB OS is because a). It's changing all the time (logs, cache, patches, temp files etc) and so is not ideally suited to snapraid and b). If the drive went bang and it WAS protected you'd STILL need a copy of Ubuntu to be able to recover both the 30GB OS and the data on the rest of the drive.
Ian.
Re: Great Guide + But a Snapraid Question
Whenever I set up a boot drive that's not going to be backed up by any secondary drive I usually set up the OS, any hardware drivers and necessary software, then boot from a clonezilla usb stick and make a backup of the drive at that point. The clonezilla backup is compressed, so if you have a 30 gig drive, you're maybe using 10 gigs for the OS and other necessary software, and clonezilla's compression will get the backup down to maybe 5 gigs. Clonezilla can store that backup on any other machine that you can SSH into (or a samba share).
Then if your 30 gig drive dies, you can put in a new blank 30 gig drive, and boot from the clonezilla usb stick and restore from your backup. It's true that your logs and packages will all be way out of date by that time, but at least you won't have to repartition and reintall the OS and all the software that you need to function from scratch. Then a quick apt-get should upgrade everything.
Then if your 30 gig drive dies, you can put in a new blank 30 gig drive, and boot from the clonezilla usb stick and restore from your backup. It's true that your logs and packages will all be way out of date by that time, but at least you won't have to repartition and reintall the OS and all the software that you need to function from scratch. Then a quick apt-get should upgrade everything.
Re: Great Guide + But a Snapraid Question
Wow, I like that 
Never thought of doing anything like that before. I've always taken it as a given that I'd have to start from scratch if my drive went bang.
Thanks very much
Ian.
Never thought of doing anything like that before. I've always taken it as a given that I'd have to start from scratch if my drive went bang.
Thanks very much
Ian.