Re: raid-one

[Date Prev][Date Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next][Date Index][Thread Index]

 



>     A raid-1 configuration is defined as two Hard Drives (HD) having the
> same computer software on each of them. If one HD fails the other will
> continue to run and the computer will operate as if nothing had happened.
>
RAID-1 (I'd capitalize as it's an acronym - Redundant Array of
Inexpensive Disks)
It is not necessarily two hard drives with the same computer software.
 You can set up two partitions on one single drive and configure as
RAID-1 (pretty useless as you take a performance hit and if the drive
dies both partitions die - the mirrored copy included).  You can have
two partitions (each on a unique drive) that are set up as a software
RAID-1.  You can have 10 drives set up as RAID-1.  So 5 drives are
mirrored onto the 5 other drives.  So RAID-1 is real time mirroring of
a drive(s) or partition(s) onto another drive(s) partition(s) for
redundancy (not backup).  The other important point is that the drives
should be the same size (not absolutely necessary but certainly
recommended) if mirroring entire drives.

After that you lost me.  You say you are checking the partitions on
the new HD, and then add a single partition on it.  Then tell the
person they must repeat this for /dev/sda1-7 (yet you just did it for
7, plus to a novice does that mean you repeat the same exact steps?
What if the partitions exist? Don't exist? Are they all the same size
- 30 gig?).

You should start off the scenario for which this tutorial applies. For
example:  "This tutorial will walk you through setting up a software
RAID-1 using an existing drive and a new drive where you wish to have
the existing drive mirrored onto the new drive."  If there is
potential of data loss (and there always is when doing something like
this) you need to warn people of that risk and advise that they
proceed accordingly (i.e. backup if you have important data or can't
afford to have to reinstall the original drive).

You should also identify your intended audience and the necessary
knowledge/skills recommended to use your tutorial.  If you are not
going to how to connect a drive and how to determine the device
assignment, then that is a pre-requisite.  If you are not going to
explain how to delete a partition if you screw it up (typo for example
and made it 20 gigs instead of 30) then you are assuming the person
knows how to do that so it should also be noted as recommended
knowledge.

It's great that you are motivated to do up a guide for others.  Many
will surely benefit.  But if not done properly you can cause much more
grief than relief.

There are existing guides out there.  tldp.org has one dating 2004.
Another is at http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch26_:_Linux_Software_RAID
Yet another at http://www.enterprisestorageforum.com/technology/features/article.php/3526891

You may want to work through one of those and keep track of your
experience (problems you encountered and how you solved them,
tips/tricks) and then provide that to people.  Tell them which guide
to use, and provide your experience as an addendum to that guide.

Setting up a software RAID is not a task that lends itself well to
simply stating:
type this, do that, then this
without foreseeing potential problems an end user may have and warn of
those and provide explanations on how to correct the problem should
they encounter it.

Something as simple as instructions on how to change ownship on a
bunch of files across sub-folders can be dangerous.  If the user
executes the chown -R from the root by mistake and they possess the
necessary rights they can really screw up their system.  I give this
example because I saw it happen in a class when chown -R was covered -
one user changed ownership on every single file to himself.  Luckily
being a classroom where everybody had the same configuration I was
able to write a script to grab ownership of files on a comparable
system (except those belonging to the end user) and with another
scripte change ownership back on all those files on his system.

I agree with Tim.  You can't take a topic like this and condense it to
a page or two of "do this, then that, then this, then ...") unless you
know your audience and their system configuration well enough to be
able to do so (i.e. in a controlled, classroom environment that may be
appropriate in some circumstances).  Newbies will use such guides and
follow them to the letter.  But one typo, or one slight difference in
setup and everything goes south pretty quick and you are cursed on.

Jacques B.

-- 
fedora-list mailing list
fedora-list@xxxxxxxxxx
To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
[Index of Archives]     [Older Fedora Users]     [Fedora Announce]     [Fedora Package Announce]     [EPEL Announce]     [Fedora Magazine]     [Fedora News]     [Fedora Summer Coding]     [Fedora Laptop]     [Fedora Cloud]     [Fedora Advisory Board]     [Fedora Education]     [Fedora Security]     [Fedora Scitech]     [Fedora Robotics]     [Fedora Maintainers]     [Fedora Infrastructure]     [Fedora Websites]     [Anaconda Devel]     [Fedora Devel Java]     [Fedora Legacy]     [Fedora Desktop]     [Fedora Fonts]     [ATA RAID]     [Fedora Marketing]     [Fedora Management Tools]     [Fedora Mentors]     [SSH]     [Fedora Package Review]     [Fedora R Devel]     [Fedora PHP Devel]     [Kickstart]     [Fedora Music]     [Fedora Packaging]     [Centos]     [Fedora SELinux]     [Fedora Legal]     [Fedora Kernel]     [Fedora OCaml]     [Coolkey]     [Virtualization Tools]     [ET Management Tools]     [Yum Users]     [Tux]     [Yosemite News]     [Gnome Users]     [KDE Users]     [Fedora Art]     [Fedora Docs]     [Asterisk PBX]     [Fedora Sparc]     [Fedora Universal Network Connector]     [Libvirt Users]     [Fedora ARM]

  Powered by Linux