Ubuntu Native Software Raid 1

[Fordiesel69]

On plain windows desktop os's and also on windows server os's it is really simple and very robust to select both disks under "Disk Managment" and put them in a software "Mirror" aka software raid 1. This works very well and what makes this so beneficial in home use, as that when you have a motherboard, power supply, or any kind of failure, I can slap one of the hard disks into any windows machine and the data is right there ready to go.

I want to do this using totally free ubuntu LTS. It does not look to be possible in the GUI so it requires me to use a command line. Will this raid setup work well with ubuntu? I tried this process way back in 2014, and none of my files I stored on the pool kept their dates when using windows PC's. I also did not practice a failure scanerio to see if the data was able to be read on another machine.

Lastly, i am way too new with anything linux based, but I hear linux us *totally* free. However ubuntu gives updates only for 5 years. How do you get 10 years for free? Do you just upgrade to a new version?

 

[OVERKILL]

Yes, you can just upgrade to the next major LTS release.

 

[Fordiesel69]

If I use ubuntu as a home storage NAS, will these dates work on windows PC's as it didnt when I experimented back in 2014.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Lastly, i am way too new with anything linux based, but I hear linux us *totally* free. However ubuntu gives updates only for 5 years. How do you get 10 years for free? Do you just upgrade to a new version?

"Free" can mean "freedom" and you are free to modify and redistribute the code. "Free" can also mean "no-cost". Unless you pay Canonical, the for-profit company that develops and manages Ubuntu, for a support contract, Ubuntu is both. Most Linux distributions have no such corporate backing and are community-developed; such as Debian, the parent distribution on which Ubuntu is built. If you ever end up developing a hardcore obsession with stability (which also has two meanings; "doesn't crash" and "doesn't change"), you'll love Debian.

The Ubuntu Long-Term Support versions - released in late April of even-numbered years, has basic support for 5 years; and if you sign up for a (free/no-cost) Ubuntu Pro subscription you'll get 10 years of support for their core packages. The other releases are supported for 9 months only.

It's common to just upgrade every 2 years when the new LTS comes out. LTS > LTS +1 upgrades tend to work OK but in my experience they're never as smooth as on Debian. Ubuntu releases are numbered for year.month so most of us are using 24.04 and will upgrade in April of 2026 when 26.04 is released. Others will install a server and run it for its 5-year or 10-year support and then decommission the server and migrate to a new, fresh install. I use Debian on servers and upgrade every 2 years in odd-numbered years (Debian tends to release their Stable version every 2 years in the late summer of odd-numbered years) and upgrade Ubuntu desktops every 2 years in even-numbered years.

 

[97prizm]

On plain windows desktop os's and also on windows server os's it is really simple and very robust to select both disks under "Disk Managment" and put them in a software "Mirror" aka software raid 1. This works very well and what makes this so beneficial in home use, as that when you have a motherboard, power supply, or any kind of failure, I can slap one of the hard disks into any windows machine and the data is right there ready to go.

I want to do this using totally free ubuntu LTS. It does not look to be possible in the GUI so it requires me to use a command line. Will this raid setup work well with ubuntu? I tried this process way back in 2014, and none of my files I stored on the pool kept their dates when using windows PC's. I also did not practice a failure scanerio to see if the data was able to be read on another machine.

Lastly, i am way too new with anything linux based, but I hear linux us *totally* free. However ubuntu gives updates only for 5 years. How do you get 10 years for free? Do you just upgrade to a new version?

It is possible with a gui, ask Ubuntu site has a how to.
Installing Raid gui option
Another option is installing mdadm and going from there. It seems to be the most commonly used software for raid disk setup.

 

[OVERKILL]

If I use ubuntu as a home storage NAS, will these dates work on windows PC's as it didnt when I experimented back in 2014.

View attachment 284077

I'm using TrueNAS on an old HP server and that appears to be working properly for me. Not that it answers your question, lol.

 

[ripcord]

Ubuntu uses the ext4 file system by default, which does store the creation date of a file. Older file systems did not support this, and it's not something universally supported in Linux yet, but most do. Date modified and date accessed have been supported by Unix/Linux since before Windows was a thing.

Back in 2014, you were probably using a Linux distro that used the ext3 file system which I think did not support the file creation date property. I could be misremembering, though.

Edit: at the Linux command line, use the "stat" command to show the properties of a file

/directory/subdirectory/ stat file.txt

 

[OVERKILL]

Ubuntu uses the ext4 file system by default, which does store the creation date of a file. Older file systems did not support this, and it's not something universally supported in Linux yet, but most do. Date modified and date accessed have been supported by Unix/Linux since before Windows was a thing.

Back in 2014, you were probably using a Linux distro that used the ext3 file system which I think did not support the file creation date property. I could be misremembering, though.

Edit: at the Linux command line, use the "stat" command to show the properties of a file

Holy crap, I forgot all about this, lol. It was supported on BSD and Solaris, but wasn't on most Linux file systems.
https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/7562/what-file-systems-on-linux-store-the-creation-time

And yes, you remember correctly, birth time/creation time wasn't added until ext4. Back in 2014 if I was using Linux, it was probably on ReiserFS, lol.