How to setup RAID 1 on NSA-325?

Hi

I've recently obtained Zyxel NSA-325 and I've managed to run Debian Jessie on it thanks to this site now I would like to use RAID 1 but I can't find any tutorial how to do it. I've never used RAID before so I was looking for some step by step procedure. So far I have found this article https://www.howtoforge.com/how-to-set-up-software-raid1-on-a-running-system-incl-grub2-configuration-debian-squeeze but it is probably just partially applicable to this device. I understand that i will need to have mdadm working to achieve that but so far even this doesn't work for me.

nrg@NSA-325:~$ sudo modprobe linear
modprobe: ERROR: ../libkmod/libkmod.c:508 kmod_lookup_alias_from_builtin_file() could not open builtin file '/lib/modules/4.4.0-kirkwood-tld-1/modules.builtin.bin'
modprobe: FATAL: Module linear not found.
nrg@NSA-325:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
cat: /proc/mdstat: No such file or directory
nrg@NSA-325:~$ sudo service --status-all|grep mdadm
 [ ? ]  cryptdisks
 [ ? ]  cryptdisks-early
 [ ? ]  hwclock.sh
 [ ? ]  kmod
 [ - ]  mdadm
 [ - ]  mdadm-raid
 [ - ]  mdadm-waitidle
 [ ? ]  networking
 [ ? ]  udev-finish
nrg@NSA-325:~$

Could someone please tell me how can I get this working starting from the beginning like how to prepare partitions etc. ?



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/21/2016 06:58AM by nrg-fv.

Is there really no one able to help me?

This is what I'm getting when trying to install mdadm

nrg@NSA-325:~$ sudo apt-get install mdadm
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Recommended packages:
  default-mta mail-transport-agent
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  mdadm
0 upgraded, 1 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Need to get 0 B/400 kB of archives.
After this operation, 1,039 kB of additional disk space will be used.
Preconfiguring packages ...

Package configuration
 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

┌──────────────────────────────────────Configuring mdadm─────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ If the system's root file system is located on an MD array (RAID), it needs to be started      │
│ early during the boot sequence. If it is located on a logical volume (LVM), which is on MD,    │
│ all constituent arrays need to be started.                                                     │
│                                                                                                │
│ If you know exactly which arrays are needed to bring up the root file system, and you want     │
│ to postpone starting all other arrays to a later point in the boot sequence, enter the         │
│ arrays to start here. Alternatively, enter 'all' to simply start all available arrays.         │
│                                                                                                │
│ If you do not need or want to start any arrays for the root file system, leave the answer      │
│ blank (or enter 'none'). This may be the case if you are using kernel autostart or do not      │
│ need any arrays to boot.                                                                       │
│                                                                                                │
│ Please enter 'all', 'none', or a space-separated list of devices such as 'md0 md1' or 'md/1    │
│ md/d0' (the leading '/dev/' can be omitted).                                                   │
│                                                                                                │
│ MD arrays needed for the root file system:                                                     │
│ ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐ │
│ │                                                                                            │ │
├─└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘─┤
│                                           <  OK  >                                             │
└────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
  


Selecting previously unselected package mdadm.
(Reading database ... 45510 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to unpack .../mdadm_3.3.2-5+deb8u1_armel.deb ...
Unpacking mdadm (3.3.2-5+deb8u1) ...
Processing triggers for man-db (2.7.0.2-5) ...
Setting up mdadm (3.3.2-5+deb8u1) ...
W: mdadm: failed to load MD subsystem.
Generating mdadm.conf... done (failed to scan arrays; /proc probably not mounted).
update-initramfs: deferring update (trigger activated)
update-rc.d: warning: start and stop actions are no longer supported; falling back to defaults
[FAIL] Assembling MD arrays...failed (failed to load MD subsystem).
update-rc.d: warning: start and stop actions are no longer supported; falling back to defaults
Processing triggers for initramfs-tools (0.120) ...
update-initramfs: Generating /boot/initrd.img-4.4.0-kirkwood-tld-1
W: mdadm: /etc/mdadm/mdadm.conf defines no arrays.
W: mkconf: MD subsystem is not loaded, thus I cannot scan for arrays.
W: mdadm: failed to auto-generate temporary mdadm.conf file.
W: mdadm: no configuration file available.
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_znujrn/lib/modules/4.4.0-kirkwood-tld-1/modules.order: No such file or directory
depmod: WARNING: could not open /var/tmp/mkinitramfs_znujrn/lib/modules/4.4.0-kirkwood-tld-1/modules.builtin: No such file or directory
nrg@NSA-325:~$

What I understand from this output there is something wrong with either kernel modules or initramfs creation, but as I'm no expert it's really hard for me to start trying to do this.

I've recently have found this tutorial http://xmodulo.com/create-software-raid1-array-mdadm-linux.html which is promising but without mdadm working further steps makes little sense. I hope someone is able to help me to get this working.

nrg-fv,

Take a look here for davidedg's installation, see if you can find what was the difference:
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,12096,20968#msg-20968

I forgot about this subject while I upgraded the rootfs to 4.4! but you should be able to install it.

-bodhi
===========================
Forum Wiki
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Hi,

If you plan to use the md RAID1 volume for the rootfs you may be interested in the second part of the following
http://forum.doozan.com/read.php?2,26394,26397#msg-26397

In a week or two I'm going to set up RAID1 on my NSA310. I'll try to write some tutorial then.