So a few things. It seems like going from 4.2 → 4.3 is more than a simple update but I wanted to double check here.
Assuming that one is better off reinstalling I wanted to try to install to my NVME drive, but setup my two 2TB drives in raid1 so I could do daily backups to that (and then less frequent backups to my server) but I have no idea how to go about doing this, or if its possible? If it is possible a point in the direction of a post/manual that i could RTFM would be appreciated (or even better just telling how to go about it in the post ).
So you’d like to have your Qubes OS installed on a raid1 configuration or use 2 other drives in raid1 for backups?
The former would be significantly more involved than the latter.
As far as the latter goes, it would probably be the simplest to use btrfs (filesystem that supports RAID by default) or mdadm (another “layer” that lets you configure any other FS on top of that)/lvm if you’re comfortable with LVM administration.
sorry, the later - I would like to install qubes on the NVME, and then have two other 2TB spinning drives that would store “daily backups”.
I’ve looked at LVM and have yet to fully wrap my head around it, would qubes be able to read a btrfs fs? (since your mentioning it i am guessing yes but want to make sure).
Yes, btrfs support is integrated directly into the Linux kernel. If you want to encrypt them and use them in dom0, you’ll want to set up 2 separate LUKS devices on the drives, and then use the opened LUKS devices (in /dev/mapper) to create a btrfs filesystem with -d raid1 -m raid1 (Btrfs - ArchWiki).
On boot you’ll have to unlock both LUKS devices, either manually or via /etc/crypttab, after which you can just mount any of the unlocked /dev/mapper devices somewhere in dom0 (this mounts the whole array immediately, if both array members are available).
You can of course also just pass the locked or unlocked LUKS devices to an AppVM and perform the set-up there.
A bonus you get with btrfs are its deduplication and compression features, both of which can be very useful for backups (although it’s not going to be as useful for encrypted Qubes backups).
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