> >> problem. This method does require that I update the two backups by > >> hand once in awhile. That's OK by me. > > > > Define, "once in awhile [sic]". > > Every 2-3 months I make sure each drive is up to date. I was having to update one server or the other every week or so, sometimes more than once a week. I could have written scripts to do it, or used rsync, I suppose, but I opted for RAID1. > > It's certainly possible to do it, > > but the very reason I went with boot arrays rather than boot partitions > was > > it was getting to be a pain to update the backup drives all the time. > > All the time vs once every 2-3 months. > > Even an out-of-date boot drive will allow me to boot the machine and > get things fixed. > > > Almost every time a package is added or deleted, /etc gets updated. > Keeping > > different copies of the configuration files in /etc in the initrd and > the > > root partition is not the best of ideas, although if course it can be > done. > > As I said I don't using an initrd. I've never learned how to build one > and didn't need it if I didn't use RAID on /boot. Most distros these days employ an initrd. One re-builds it by running whatever application is included with the distro for that purpose. In the case of Debian and Debian derivatives, it is currently `update-initramfs`. It's built the first time by installing a Linux distro. It's not that difficult to do by hand, however. Most are built using cpio and gzip. Once one has the directory structure one wishes, one simply creates a compressed tarball (cpioball?) from the structure. It includes a copy of /etc, with some special scripts to allow the system to work prior to the existence of the "real" /. > I don't understand your comments about /etc as it's not kept in /boot. > /etc, /, /home, and all other directories are on RAID. Only /boot > isn't, so it needs only a kernel and grub. The initrd has a copy of /etc - especially the boot configuration files such as mdadm.conf, fstab, etc. -- 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
