Clone RAID-10 with Single SSD: Adaptec ASR6405E Controller

Cloning a RAID-10 Array to a Single SSD with an Adaptec ASR6405E Controller on a Debian 7 Box

In this article, we will discuss the process of cloning a RAID-10 array to a single SSD using an Adaptec ASR6405E controller on a Debian 7 system. We will cover the key concepts and provide detailed, step-by-step instructions to help you complete the task. This article assumes that you have a basic understanding of Linux and RAID arrays.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following:

• A Debian 7 system with an Adaptec ASR6405E controller
• A RAID-10 array configured on the controller
• A 1TB SATA 6Gb/s SSD
• A system with dd installed (available on most Linux distributions)

Preparing the SSD

Before you can clone the RAID-10 array to the SSD, you need to prepare the SSD by creating a partition table and formatting it. You can use the following steps to accomplish this:

1. Connect the SSD to the system.
2. Open a terminal and run the following command to identify the device name of the SSD (e.g., /dev/sdb):
   sudo fdisk -l
3. Run the following command to create a new GPT partition table on the SSD:
   sudo parted /dev/sdb mklabel gpt
4. Create a new partition on the SSD using the following command (replace X with the partition number, e.g., 1):
   sudo parted -a optimal /dev/sdb mkpart primary X 0% 100%
5. Format the partition using the following command (replace X with the partition name, e.g., /dev/sdb1):
   sudo mkfs.ext4 /dev/sdbX

Cloning the RAID-10 Array

Now that the SSD is prepared, you can clone the RAID-10 array to the SSD using the following steps:

1. Identify the RAID array device name (e.g., /dev/ada0) by running the following command:
   sudo arcconf getconfig 1 ADP | grep "Physical Drives"
2. Unmount the RAID array using the following command (replace X with the device name, e.g., /dev/ada0):
   sudo umount /dev/X
3. Clone the RAID array to the SSD using the following command (replace X with the RAID array device name and Y with the SSD partition name, e.g., /dev/sdb1):
   sudo dd if=/dev/X of=/dev/Y bs=4M status=progress oflag=sync
4. Wait for the cloning process to complete (this may take some time depending on the size of the RAID array).
5. Mount the SSD using the following command (replace Y with the SSD partition name, e.g., /dev/sdb1):
   sudo mount /dev/Y /mnt

Adding the SSD to the RAID Array

Once the cloning process is complete, you can add the SSD to the RAID array using the following steps:

1. Add the SSD to the controller using the following command (replace Y with the SSD partition name, e.g., /dev/sdb1):
   sudo arcconf adddisk 1 ADP /dev/Y
2. Wait for the controller to recognize the SSD.
3. Rebuild the RAID array using the following command (replace X with the RAID array device name and Y with the SSD partition name):
   sudo arcconf resyncarray 1 ADP X Y
4. Wait for the RAID array to rebuild.

In this article, we discussed the process of cloning a RAID-10 array to a single SSD using an Adaptec ASR6405E controller on a Debian 7 system. We covered the key concepts and provided detailed, step-by-step instructions to help you complete the task. By following these steps, you can easily clone a RAID-10 array to a single SSD and add it to the array for increased performance and capacity.

References

• arcconf man page
• fdisk man page
• parted man page
• mkfs.ext4 man page
• dd man page