Using 2 file systems / partitions on a RAID setup

[KCmetro]

Is this possible:

2 disks using soft RAID 1 (probably set up via mdadm, unless there's better).

Partition that with half Windows NTFS and half Linux EXT4, BTRFS, or XFS.

 

Edit - the RAID is just RAID, it's not backup, I have an external backup in mind for that.

 

[Oshino Shinobu]

It wouldn't work with software RAID, as you need to boot into the software before it can actually be set up. So, if you wanted to access the Windows partition, it would mean you'd have to boot up Linux to initialise mdadm, but then you're in Linux, so you're stuck AFAIK.

[KCmetro]

I was able to use a RAID+mdadm setup with read/write on both windows & linux on an old computer, I just forgot how I set it up.

[Oshino Shinobu]

Just now, KCmetro said:

I was able to use a RAID+mdadm setup with read/write on both windows & linux on an old computer, I just forgot how I set it up.

I forgot you mentioned RAID 1. I was thinking some form of striping RAID for some reason. With RAID 1, it could potentially work, but I doubt the solution would exactly be elegant. To be honest, either separate drives or hardware RAID would be a better solution. I'd personally go with two different drives and a good backup system for a more practical solution. 

[KCmetro]

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

I forgot you mentioned RAID 1. I was thinking some form of striping RAID for some reason. With RAID 1, it could potentially work, but I doubt the solution would exactly be elegant. To be honest, either separate drives or hardware RAID would be a better solution. I'd personally go with two different drives and a good backup system for a more practical solution. 

 

1xSSD = windows (ntfs)

1xSSD = linux (either ext4, btrfs, or xfs)

2xHDD(RAID1) = storage (split in half, 50% ntfs, 50% either ext4, btrfs, or xfs)

 

I'll look into the possibility of hard raid.

 

Backup's external to the computer, this is just for the internal drives.

 

 

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

yes. two partition on each drive one with windows and one with linux software raid filesystem. you dont need raid 1 on a desktop so youd be better off with raid0 or 1 drive for each system

[KCmetro]

6 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

yes. two partition on each drive one with windows and one with linux software raid filesystem. you dont need raid 1 on a desktop so youd be better off with raid0 or 1 drive for each system

Of course I could just use 1x3TB windows storage and 1x3TB linux storage  heheh ...but I want the reliability factor (this is not backup, that's separate)... how would I set up soft raid to work with that?

 

Install drives, make sure it's UEFI (using SSDs), and set mobo to RAID (not AHCI), install windows on ssd1, install linux on ssd2, then use linux to set up hdd1-2 with raid1 via mdadm, then partition the raid1 into ntfs & lvm? (I'm going to use LVM with anything *nix-related, will then go for the file system setup after that.)

 

Edit - will Windows be able to find then read/write the 50% of the RAID1 that's NTFS at that point?

[Oshino Shinobu]

1 minute ago, SCHISCHKA said:

yes. two partition on each drive one with windows and one with linux software raid filesystem. you dont need raid 1 on a desktop so youd be better off with raid0 or 1 drive for each system

Definitely wouldn't be better off with RAID 0. IMO, RAID 0 should never be used for anything other than scratch disks (says the person with a RAID 0 boot array).
 

2 minutes ago, KCmetro said:

 

1xSSD = windows (ntfs)

1xSSD = linux (either ext4, btrfs, or xfs)

2xHDD(RAID1) = storage (split in half, 50% ntfs, 50% either ext4, btrfs, or xfs)

 

I'll look into the possibility of hard raid.

 

Backup's external to the computer, this is just for the internal drives.

 

 

That should work as you don't have to deal with potential issues with booting. The reason I suggest hardware RAID is because you then don't have to worry about setting it up on both OSes, it initialises and sets up before the OS is even loaded. Most modern boards will support at least RAID 0 and 1 and are okay for most consumer uses. Some people have a strange objection to onboard RAID, but really, if you're going with a simple RAID like RAID 0 or 1, it's enough. I'd agree it's not great for more complex RAIDs like 5 and 6. 

[KCmetro]

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Definitely wouldn't be better off with RAID 0. IMO, RAID 0 should never be used for anything other than scratch disks (says the person with a RAID 0 boot array).
 

That should work as you don't have to deal with potential issues with booting. The reason I suggest hardware RAID is because you then don't have to worry about setting it up on both OSes, it initialises and sets up before the OS is even loaded. Most modern boards will support at least RAID 0 and 1 and are okay for most consumer uses. Some people have a strange objection to onboard RAID, but really, if you're going with a simple RAID like RAID 0 or 1, it's enough. I'd agree it's not great for more complex RAIDs like 5 and 6. 

parts:

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/KCmetro/saved/R3wcf7

mobo:
Asus Z170-PRO ATX LGA1151 Motherboard

[fjdhdhcyfhf]

1 minute ago, KCmetro said:

Of course I could just use 1x3TB windows storage and 1x3TB linux storage  heheh ...but I want the reliability factor (this is not backup, that's separate)... how would I set up soft raid to work with that?

RAID1 without hotswap bays or a hot spare is pointless

3 minutes ago, Oshino Shinobu said:

Definitely wouldn't be better off with RAID 0. IMO, RAID 0 should never be used for anything other than scratch disks (says the person with a RAID 0 boot array).

iv been using raid0 for years. nothing wrong with it. a good drive takes years to fail, and if it does i have data on backup. im currently using 3 drives in raid0

[KCmetro]

24 minutes ago, SCHISCHKA said:

RAID1 without hotswap bays or a hot spare is pointless

iv been using raid0 for years. nothing wrong with it. a good drive takes years to fail, and if it does i have data on backup. im currently using 3 drives in raid0

By hotswap bays do you mean the case having them or the mobo having the ability to swap drives without powering down? It's not a dedicated server (that half of the computer), so shutting down's okay as long as the array would be able to recover on a fresh boot.

 

I would love to use raid0, really I'd prefer raid10, but am keeping things down to a simple raid setup now, and with the purpose of a laboratory-based virtualization host server setup for "half" the computer's purpose, the raid1 is practical. I'm not using it as backup, it's for maintaining live data without losing it should a (call it unlikely) hdd failure occur. Using raid0 would rock, it's faster and doesn't lose 1/2 the capacity. If this were just a gaming computer, I'd probably raid0. Later, when I build a completely separate and dedicated server, I will repurpose this computer as a dedicated gaming computer, and can change to raid0 or something else then.

 

Are there any good videos or webpages out there that cover how to set up raid for both windows and linux like how I've described it (partition for ntfs for windows, partition for lvm/etc. for linux, all within a raid setup)?

 

Quick edit - heck, I could use raid1 now and with external backups, I could change to raid0 later, giving me 2x the capacity and just reloading the data back onto it from backups. It'd be more difficult to go from raid0 to raid1, with cutting cap in half.