ubuntu destop raid to server

[amerinde]

i think this might be a tricky question, but.. i set a computer up with ubuntu desktop and made a raid5 with mdadm... if i delete the desktop and install server, will the raid still exist?

[darkod]

In general yes, but it depends on the setup you have and what you want to do during the server os installation.
For example where is your root partition? In the raid or outside?

[amerinde]

i boot off a 120G. ssd (sdf1) , my raid5 (md0) consists of (sd[abcd]1) the system and root (everyhting is on sdf*) The raid is for back up and file storage, right now mainly music and movies. I want to open it up so i and friends can access online(anywhere).

[darkod]

In that case you can keep the raid and the data. If I'm not mistaken the install process will detect the raid and ask you if you want to activate it. Say yes. Continue with the install and make sure to select sdf as destination. Of course you will have to format sdf to make clean install. If you want to keep any data or config files from it make a copy first.
That's about it. The process is more or less the same regardless if you have existing raid.

[amerinde]

wow.. u are fast.and thank you... your opinion, should i switch from desktop to server or not... i have read up, only difference i c, i desktop gives the gui.. are there actual advantages to switch to server.. i use webmin to access my ??server/desktop?? so i dont need gui.

[tgalati4]

You can leave the desktop installation and simply install the web server and any other services that you need. With an i7, there is very little performance difference between the desktop and server. When you log in, you can select "terminal session" and not even activate the desktop--this is known as single-user mode and will save some CPU cycles. I would only install the server if the machine is truely a headless or rack-mounted server, where you don't need the desktop. But for a desktop machine, you may want the gui so you can try out new software, games, and easier management, etc.

[MAFoElffen]

+1...

Darkod answered your question by what and how you had asked... But tgalati4 answered it to what you might only really need, would be less work for you to implement and what you are already might be more familiar with.

I was thinking the same as I was reading your posts. There is no need for you to get rid of something that is already working, just to add services to it. What you are talking about is not much overhead on "your" hardware and is serving a limited user-base. The server edition and desktop edition is on the same base-core system. You only need to install the additional services you need to add... what you want to offer. Without the GUI would be more secure, but with the limited access you want to offer... not as much a concern.

[amerinde]

darkrod, u were half right, half wrong... during setup, it saw the raid. so i kept it... but after boot, i still had to edit fastab(??) for the system to recognise the raid. but the files were no longer there... good thing for backups... atleast i didnt have to do the wait for it to configure the raid.

[amerinde]

and to tgalati4 n MAFoElffen, wish u would have said so earlier.. cause now i got a problem with getting access from my windows 7 pc.. On the server, i have read write access, but in windows, i can only access the files. smb.conf has me as write... but it doesnt work.. i keep getting access denied..should i close here and open new thread?

[darkod]

darkrod, u were half right, half wrong... during setup, it saw the raid. so i kept it... but after boot, i still had to edit fastab(??) for the system to recognise the raid. but the files were no longer there... good thing for backups... atleast i didnt have to do the wait for it to configure the raid.

If you needed to adjust fstab to automount the array at boot, that's one thing. But for the data to be deleted, that should not happen. Is it possible that you formatted the array while keeping it? Not that it makes a difference now, because you already retrieved your backup.

As for samba, I am not expert on it, but does the windows user match the samba and/or linux user on the server? It needs to match. Also, a samba user is considered different from the linux user, so you might need to create both.