[solved] Imaging or other backup means of "fake" RAID?

adversity · Last edited by adversity on Fri May 11, 2012 12:01 am; edited 1 time in total

Trying to get some general advice on the best way to go about backing up a "fake" RAID array. I'll take whatever means I can, but I'd prefer an imaging solution as opposed to just simple file duplication. It would also be nice if any provided solutions can backup Windows partitions on the same array. If I have to use two different apps or methods to accomplish both Windows and Linux images I will but I'd prefer an all in one deal if at all possible.

I've been searching and reading around and from what I understand Clonezilla is not capable of imaging partitions on a fake RAID? I typically use PING for my imaging needs, but I'm not sure if it's capable of this either?

Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated.

py-ro · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 10:20 pm Post subject:

Any program capable of backing up partitions can backup a fakeraid. Everything is a file.

adversity · Posted: Fri May 04, 2012 11:05 pm Post subject:

I know with software raid you make duplicate partitions on each drive. When you do hardware fake RAID does it do the same thing? And if so, I presume I'd just have to make an image of desired partition from each drive? Or can programs like PING do it "intelligently" where only one image file is required?

I was thinking what you said, but then I was wondering why Clonezilla states specifically that it's not capable of imaging RAID arrays?

I haven't set everything up yet or I'd do some hands on tests. Basically my setup will be a Dualboot RAID0 using on-board JMicron controller.

dmpogo · Advocate Joined: 02 Sep 2004 Posts: 2166 Location: Canada

py-ro · Posted: Sat May 05, 2012 5:22 pm Post subject:

No, even on Disk-Level, everything is a File

adversity · Posted: Sat May 05, 2012 6:41 pm Post subject:

I haven't set up Gentoo on the array yet, but Windows is done. So I went to image it with PING and as I had suspected, it wouldn't work. Not from the default boot setup anyway. However there doesn't appear to be any way to pass extra boot parameters to PING, as it just boots straight in with no prompt. While booting it says something about "detecting fakeRAID... Success/blah blah blah". Once booted though there are no "/dev/mapper/" listings, nor are both hard drives displayed, just simply /dev/sda (as opposed to /dev/sdaN and /dev/sdbN). If I select the corresponding /dev/sda Windows parition, it acts like it's going to back it up but finishes in seconds and makes a 1kB gzip file. So I'm either missing something in the initial setup (dmraid isn't loading/present?), or the statement that any software capable of imaging partitions will work isn't true. Like I said before Clonezilla makes it a point to state that it's NOT capable of imaging FakeRAID arrays.

It doesn't really make sense to me, it seems like so long as the app is capable of booting with dmraid it should be capable of detecting the array and therefore backing it up, but my technical understanding of fakeRAID on linux is admittedly not very thorough. I've also discovered that fakeRAID doesn't create partitions visible on each drive like one does with software RAID. I assume the RAID BIOS stores this info or something along those lines? Either way, this obviously makes it impossible to just make an image of the desired partition from each drive in the array (say /dev/sda3 and dev/sdb3).

For imaging my Windows partition on the array I'm just going to use Acronis True Image, which works perfectly for Windows. But this still leaves me needing an app/solution capable of backing up my Gentoo partitions :-/.

adversity · Posted: Fri May 11, 2012 12:11 am Post subject:

Figured it out. I'm not sure why I was under the impression Acronis True Image couldn't image a linux partition, but it can and does so without any problems. Atleast for ext2/3/4. So I'm a happy camper now, and fakeraid install was a breeze.