> -----Original Message----- > From: linux-raid-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:linux-raid-owner@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Jens Benecke > Sent: 05 August 2004 12:08 > To: linux-raid@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: RE: Q: RAID-1 w/2x160GB, ReiserFS, Debian 'woody', > homebrew 2.4.25 kernel > > robin-lists@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx wrote: > > >> >> How about RAIDing the root partition? If one drive > fails will the > >> >> other be able to boot via LILO? How about GRUB? Which do > >> > > >> > I have my root partition on a RAID1 mirror. I use grub and have > >> > "installed" grub to both mirrored drives so I can boot > off either, > >> > e.g. if one fails. That reminds me, I must test this. > >> > >> That's exactly what I want. > > > > I've got some rough notes I made. I may tidy them up and > publish them > > on my web site. > > Hi Robin, > > I'm still a bit torn between buying a 3ware hardware RAID for > ?140.- and just using 'md'. The box is an Athlon64 3GHz, so > it'll have enough CPU power to do the RAID in software, but > with partitioning etc, I think the hardware raid will be > easier to handle because you can just ignore it. As long as > the 3ware BIOS will handle failing drives, read/write errors, > etc etc. properly. > > Right? Not sure what your question is. 3ware cards are generally held in high regard, although I have seen some traffic about performance problems, although these seem to be contradicted by an equal number of "it works Ok for me" traffic. I needed at least 6 x 250GB drives so the 3Ware option was a little pricey, hence my decision to go with md. > > >> > keep /var/tmp and /tmp on the root partition. > >> > >> No. I don't want a rogue script to fill up my root partition. > > > > That, of course, is the reason you would want to keep > /var/tmp and/or > > /tmp on separate partitions (or on the same partition - > just symlink > > so /var/tmp and /tmp are the same.) > > I would probably not symlink but I'd put them both on the > same partition. I have a separate /var partition so I will just symlink /tmp to /var/tmp. > > >> What I mean is, will md resync automatically or would I have to > >> initiate this manually? > > > > Md should re-sync automatically. > > ... even onto a new blank disk? Or would you have to tell md > manually "this is the new spare, please sync"? Is this easy > to do? Something like > > - copy partition table > - for FOO in 1 2 3 4 5 ; do tell md "sync hda$FOO to hdc$FOO" > > or is it more complicated? Now that you've made me think about it I'm not entirely sure. I would do this: (assume /dev/sdc has failed). Shutdown server. Pull dead drive Insert new drive Boot up server # sfdisk -d /dev/sda | sfdisk /dev/sdc Now, it might be necessary to explicitly "remove" the failed device from the arrays (before shutting down?) and to add it back in after replacing the disk but I don't know. I'm sure there are others on this list who can keep us right! For example, would this work?: # mdadm /dev/md5 -f /dev/sdc2 -r /dev/sdc2 -a /dev/sdc2 According to my understanding, this does the following: 1. Marks /dev/sdc2 as faulty in /dev/md5 (if the drive has failed it should already be marked faulty??) 2. removes /dev/sdc2 from /dev/md5 3. Adds /dev/sdc2 to /dev/md5 Can anyone else clarify this? > >> This setup seems quite complicated. Did you test the setup, ie. > >> removed one of the MD disks and looked what happened? I really ought to do this before I put the machine into "production"! > > I deliberated long and hard about how to implement my new > system and > > this was about the least complicated route! > > Oh. ;) > > > >> >> The goal is to have as "stress free" a system as possible as > >> >> little manual configuration, and in event of emergencies, as > >> >> little work to do, as possible. > >> > If you want stress free, buy a Netapps storage appliance ;o) > >> If they do all the rest that I need (smtp, web, file server, > > I was being slightly slippant - Netapps just do big storage arrays > > with very high availability. For example, if they detect > that a drive > > is failing they send an email to Netapps and an engineer > comes round > > with a replacement disk all without any user intervention! I guess > > they're the Rolls Royce of storage solutions. Expensive though. > > Ah. Well I don't think this'll fit in our budget. :) That should of course have read "flippant". But I think you got my meaning. :) R. -- http://robinbowes.com - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
