Reiner Buehl <rei...@buehl.net> writes: > I have a Debian Etch system that runs on a RAID 1 software raid > system. now I would like to upgrade it to Lenny by splitting the > mirror off and keep one mirror as a backup.
Hello Reiner, I do exactly this when I upgrade a system. I simply disconnect the drive I'd like to remain as a backup. When I am satisfied that everything is working, I shut the system down, reconnect the drive in a way that ensures the system will boot from the upgraded drive, then reboot and use mdadm to restart the mirror (if they are hot-swap drives the same applies, but you don't need to shut the machine down to put the drive back in). If I need to revert to the backup, do the same thing but make sure the backup drive is the boot drive. Many systems let you choose which drive to boot from in the BIOS; those that don't will generally give priority to the first drive on the first controller of the system. If I have spare drives, sometimes I will save the old drive as a long-term backup and put a new drive in. Then I can stick that in a USB enclosure to get data from it. I have never ended up using the data, though; the upgrades have either worked completely or not at all. Hope this helps! ----Scott. -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org