-- lilha@legend.com.cn on 06/27/02 10:35:18 +0800 > > > i know that lvm support striping now and LVM2 will support mirroring > directly later this year. > but i'm puzzled that why lvm do that? > > i think the main Goals of LVM are > 1.Implement a very flexible virtual disk subsystem to handle disk > storage. > 2.Online allocation and relocation of storage. > 3.Online extension and reduction of storage. > And disk redundancy is the goals of hardware. or software.RAID. > > i think software.RAID+LVM is good idea,and that's enough. > why LVM focus on the striping and mirroring? > i don't think it's a good idea to do a big and full software. > RAID is about fault tolerance. Striping is a performance issue. Mirroring on LVM or via RAID is about fault tolerance and maybe performance. So... For blind speed you probably want striping, but risk blowing everyting if any one disk fails. Fix is to use some sort of RAID/Mirroring to deal with the failures. You might also want the fault tolerance just for the sake of not loosing important information if one drive croaks. If you are already using LVM and don't want to go through the hassle of setting up sorftware RAID (and don't have a few hundred dollars availble for hardware) then mirroring in LVM is a nice, clean way to protect yourself using tools you already have (and know how to use)(and know how to configure) (and know how install)(and know how to compile). Depending on how it's implemented, LVM mirroring can also be a performance enhancment. For example, HP's LVM system alternates between the mirrors for writes, allowing the other drive to catch up. On heavily used systems this will usually help I/O performance by alternating the load -- it ends up looking like a form of striping. -- Steven Lembark 2930 W. Palmer Workhorse Computing Chicago, IL 60647 +1 800 762 1582 _______________________________________________ linux-lvm mailing list linux-lvm@sistina.com http://lists.sistina.com/mailman/listinfo/linux-lvm read the LVM HOW-TO at http://www.sistina.com/lvm/Pages/howto.html