Set up software RAID on Linux using mdadm

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2024-11-28 11:30:05

Recently, I decided to get a big upgrade for my home NAS, so I had to set up a RAID array once again. Since I’m not doing this on a daily basis, I tend to forget the commands, so I have a document with all the instructions. I think that it might be helpful for some of you, so I polished it up a bit.

For obvious reasons, you need multiple drives to be able to create a RAID array. The minimum number of drives depends on the desired RAID level (more on that later).

If you’re like me and you’re setting up your NAS to serve your home or your small business, you probably don’t want to go with enterprise-grade hard drives. In fact, even some enterprises don’t use enterprise-grade HDDs. One such renowned company is Backblaze, which opted to use consumer-grade drives in their data centers. They even publish regular reports detailing the reliability of their drives. That data is a great source to find the most reliable drives that stand well even in the demanding environment of a datacenter.

As for me, I tend to prefer Seagate drives, but this mostly comes down to the fact that in my region they have the broadest product range and suppliers usually maintain a reasonable stock of these drives.