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My current Linux Mint 20.3 is soon running out of support, so I figured it's time to install a fresh Linux Mint 22. Currently I have mdadm running two 4TB drives on RAID1 with LUKS. It's been very many years since I set this thing up (and last time while upgrading to Mint 20, I corrupted my superblock rebuilding after install...), so I figured this time I make sure I got my to-do list right, before I proceed with the operation.

  1. First unmount RAID directory

sudo umount /storage (my mountpoint for /dev/md0)

  1. Stop existing RAID Array on source system

sudo mdadm --stop /dev/md0

(Install new Linux Mint)

  1. Assemble RAID1 back

sudo mdadm --assemble /dev/md0 /dev/sda /dev/sdb

  1. Unlock existing devices

sudo cryptsetup luksOpen /dev/md1 raidcrypt

  1. add /etc/fstab mount

/dev/mapper/raidcrypt /storage ext4 defaults 0 2

Am I missing something critical? Should this retrieve my RAID1 setup on a new install? Obviously I will be installing the operating system on a different dedicated SSD drive.

If I understood, I definitely need to avoid 'mdadm --create --verbose /dev/md0 --level=1 --raid-devices=2 /dev/sda /dev/sdb' which would create a new superblock, correct?

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  • Note the low number of followers on the 2 tags you have used. Maybe sort the tag list here by size and add the largest followed tag that is still appropriate? Commented Oct 10, 2024 at 15:44
  • Thanks, did that! Hopefully someone can verify, before I proceed with the opration. Commented Oct 26, 2024 at 23:08
  • As long as nothing touches these drives, it will work; otherwise, it will be gone. So it depends on how much you trust the installer to leave things well alone. Additional measure would be to unplug the drives, or run the installer in a VM which has access to the dedicated SSD only, then migrate from VM to bare metal (and then trust the installed system won't wipe the drives as it boots). That's the rabbit hole, it should work, but if you're looking for guarantees, there aren't any. Have a backup. Commented Oct 26, 2024 at 23:52
  • Thank you! I've always installed RAID drives unplugged, just to be safe. And have a backup, too. Commented Oct 27, 2024 at 22:06
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    Good luck then, let us know what you discover! Commented Oct 27, 2024 at 23:40

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