Thanks Wol. I can't really disagree with anything you've said except to mention that I do have a fair bit of experience (20+ years) but it's all been pretty much Microsoft/Windows and hardware RAID. Like I said this device was never meant to be used for critical data - if nothing else this has been something of a wake-up call for us. -----Original Message----- From: Wols Lists <antlists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, 22 May 2022 11:31 PM To: Bob Brand <brand@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Reindl Harald <h.reindl@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Roger Heflin <rogerheflin@xxxxxxxxx> Cc: Linux RAID <linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>; Phil Turmel <philip@xxxxxxxxxx>; NeilBrown <neilb@xxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: Failed adadm RAID array after aborted Grown operation On 22/05/2022 05:13, Bob Brand wrote: > Unfortunately, restore from back up isn't an option - after all to > where do you back up 200TB of data? This storage was originally set up > with the understanding that it wasn't backed up and so no valuable > data was supposed to have been stored on it. Unfortunately, people > being what they are, valuable data has been stored there and I'm the > mug now trying to get it back - it's a system that I've inherited. > > So, any help or constructive advice would be appreciated. Unfortunately, about the only constructive advice I can give you is "live and learn". I made a similar massive cock-up at the start of my career, and I've always been excessively cautious about disks and data ever since. What your employer needs to take away from this - and no disrespect to yourself - is that if they run a system that was probably supported for about five years, then has been running on duck tape and baling wire for a further ten years, DON'T give it to someone with pretty much NO sysadmin or computer ops experience to carry out a potentially disastrous operation like messing about with a raid array! This is NOT a simple setup, and it seems clear to me that you have little familiarity with the basic concepts. Unfortunately, your employer was playing Russian Roulette, and the gun went off. On a *personal* level, and especially if your employer wants you to continue looking after their systems, they need to give you an (old?) box with a bunch of disk drives. Go back to the raid website and look at the article about building a new system. Take that system they've given you, and use that article as a guide to build it from scratch. It's actually about the computer being used right now to type this message. I use(d) gentoo as my distro. It's a great distro, but for a newbie I think it takes "throw them in at the deep end" to extremes. Go find Slackware and start with that. It's not a "hold their hands and do everything for them" distro, but nor is it a "here's the instructions, if they don't work for you then you're on your own" distro. Once you've got to grips with Slack, have a go at gentoo. And once you've managed to get gentoo working, you should have a pretty decent grasp of what's going "under the bonnet". CentOS/RedHat/SLES should be a breeze after that. Cheers, Wol CAUTION!!! This E-mail originated from outside of WMA Water. Do not click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe.
