How to Create RAID 10 on OpenSUSE

RAID 10 is a popular RAID level that provides both high performance and data redundancy by combining the best of RAID 0 and RAID 1 configurations. In this tutorial, we will guide you through the process of how to create a RAID 10 setup on OpenSUSE.

Prerequisites

Before we begin, make sure you have:

A fresh installation of OpenSUSE.
Four hard drives with equal capacity.
Root access to your OpenSUSE system.

If you need help with any of these steps, you may refer to the following resources:

How to Create RAID 10 on OpenSUSE

Install Required Packages

First, update your system packages by running the following command:

zypper update

Next, install the mdadm package, which is a necessary tool for managing RAID arrays:

zypper install mdadm

Create Partitions on Each Drive

In this step, you will create a new partition on each of the four hard drives. You can use the fdisk tool to do this. First, identify your drives using the following command:

lsblk

Assuming your drives are named sdb, sdc, sdd, and sde, run the following commands to create a new partition on each drive:

fdisk /dev/sdb
fdisk /dev/sdc
fdisk /dev/sdd
fdisk /dev/sde

After running each command, follow these steps:

Press n to create a new partition.
Press p to choose a primary partition.
Press 1 to create the first partition.
Press Enter twice to accept the default values for the first and last sectors.
Press t to change the partition’s system ID.
Enter fd to set the partition type to Linux RAID autodetect.
Press w to write the changes and exit.

Create RAID 10 Array on OpenSUSE

Now that you have created the necessary partitions, you can create the RAID 10 array using the mdadm command:

mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=10 --raid-devices=4 /dev/sdb1 /dev/sdc1 /dev/sdd1 /dev/sde1

This command creates a new RAID 10 array (/dev/md0) using the four partitions you created earlier. You can check the progress of the RAID creation by running:

cat /proc/mdstat

Create a Filesystem on the RAID Array

Once the RAID 10 array is created, you can create a filesystem on it. In this tutorial, we will create an ext4 filesystem:

mkfs.ext4 /dev/md0

Mount the RAID Array

Now that you have created a filesystem on the RAID 10 array, you can mount it. First, create a directory where you want to mount the RAID array:

mkdir /mnt/raid10

Then, mount the RAID array:

mount /dev/md0 /mnt/raid10

This command mounts the RAID 10 array (/dev/md0) to the /mnt/raid10 directory.

Update /etc/fstab to Automount RAID Array

To ensure that the RAID array is mounted automatically at boot, update the /etc/fstab file. First, obtain the UUID of the RAID array by running:

blkid /dev/md0

Copy the UUID value and open the /etc/fstab file using your preferred text editor:

vim /etc/fstab

Add the following line at the end of the file, replacing UUID_VALUE with the UUID you copied earlier:

UUID=UUID_VALUE /mnt/raid10 ext4 defaults 0 0

Save the file and exit the text editor.

Verify RAID Array Status

You can verify the status of your RAID 10 array by running the following command:

mdadm --detail /dev/md0

This command will display detailed information about the RAID 10 array, including the status of each drive and any potential issues.

Congratulations! You have successfully created a RAID 10 array on OpenSUSE. For more tutorials on managing your OpenSUSE system, check out the following articles:

If you encounter any issues or need help with other RAID configurations, feel free to explore our other RAID setup guides: