Mac Mini Server Set up for Raid 0

[mikeylikesit]

I just received my 2011 Mac Mini server and need some advice on setup. I don't think I need the server functions but wanted it for the faster processor and dual drives. I contemplated setting up as a raid 0 and assumed there was some standard settings in the configuration for this but I was apparently wrong. Is there a tutorial online or can someone give me some advice on what I should be doing. I am concerned about messing about with the operating system because Lion doesn't come on disks or USB. Should I first clone a drive or setup an install disk so I won't have to download the Lion? My systems are backed up using a Synology server so I'm not concerned about the have OSX on a raid.

Thanks

 

[jgreco]

Mac Mini Server - sweet but for Lion

I just received my 2011 Mac Mini server and need some advice on setup. I don't think I need the server functions but wanted it for the faster processor and dual drives. I contemplated setting up as a raid 0 and assumed there was some standard settings in the configuration for this but I was apparently wrong. Is there a tutorial online or can someone give me some advice on what I should be doing. I am concerned about messing about with the operating system because Lion doesn't come on disks or USB. Should I first clone a drive or setup an install disk so I won't have to download the Lion? My systems are backed up using a Synology server so I'm not concerned about the have OSX on a raid.

Thanks

I did this as RAID 1; doing so loses you the recovery partition, and it isn't as straightforward as it was with SL. Because the recovery partition is actually on one of the two drives you want to manipulate, you need to be careful. This is also kind-of from memory, though it was just done recently.

First I attached a USB HDD, invoked recovery, and installed a clean system to the USB (which also gave me a recovery partition that can be used later).

Next, I started the installer (again through recovery, but from the USB) and went to Disk Utility. I erased the two internal disks. Once it was able to confirm erasing them, then it's possible to set them up as RAID.

Then do an install.

Problem here is that Lion won't install a recovery partition onto a software RAID, so you lose the built-in recovery partition. I believe you also lose the ability to encrypt your disks, probably because Lion abuses the recovery partition to jumpstart the encrypted disk.

I was not particularly amused by any of this. We have a Mac Mini Server running SL that's very straightforward for all this stuff, and I wasn't expecting Apple to take such a significant step backwards. That, combined with the problems with AFP and NAS products, combined with removing NFS as an option for user home directories, pretty much makes me regret the new Mini Server we bought. I'm seriously thinking of turning it into a Snow Leopard client, a task for which it'd be pretty neatly suited, I think.

It seems like it'd be nice if Apple offered "Server" product owners the opportunity to downgrade to the standard OS.

 

[indg]

run these 2 commands in terminal to use debug mode in disk utility:
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility advanced-image-options -bool true
defaults write com.apple.DiskUtility DUDebugMenuEnabled -bool true

start disk utility, go to debug menu and select "Show every partition".

clone/restore the Recovery HD volume (650MB) and Macintosh HD (lion) volume to an external drive (2 separate partitions).

boot the mini holding option key and choose the recovery partition on the external drive. once booted into recovery, start disk utility. and format the mini internal drives to striped raid set. should be fairly quick to set up. once the raid set is mounted, clone the Macintosh HD partition from the external drive to the 1TB raid volume. reboot mini holding option key and choose the raid volume.

if it doesn't boot up properly, then boot mini again from Recovery HD partition on the external drive and do a fresh install of lion onto the raid volume. it will then download approximately 4GB of lion install files from apple's server and install it to the raid volume. should take about an hour and you may not see the progress meter move for several minutes, but don't touch it til it finishes.