How to perform fresh linux install while preserving software raid and user accounts

Posted by slayton on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by slayton
Published on 2012-09-14T21:28:18Z Indexed on 2012/09/14 21:39 UTC
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linux

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raid

I have a system with two software raid arrays. The OS is Ubuntu 9.04 and is no longer receiving updates. I'd like to update the system to 12.04 rather than trying to do the automatic update from 9.04-> 9.10-> ... -> 12.04.

My main drive has 2 partitions that are mounted at / and /home.

Is it possible to do a fresh install of linux to the partition where / is mounted while preserving user accounts and preferences (such as passwords, home dir locations, etc...)?

Additionally what do I need to do to keep my software raid array intact following the OS re-install?

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