From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Sep 22 13:39:01 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F1EE916A412 for ; Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:39:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from rick@kiwi-computer.com) Received: from kiwi-computer.com (megan.kiwi-computer.com [63.224.10.3]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 7178E43D4C for ; Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:39:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from rick@kiwi-computer.com) Received: (qmail 31930 invoked by uid 2001); 22 Sep 2006 13:39:00 -0000 Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 08:39:00 -0500 From: "Rick C. Petty" To: freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Message-ID: <20060922133900.GA31626@megan.kiwi-computer.com> References: <20060921200909.GA13927@megan.kiwi-computer.com> <200609220914.k8M9E1h8077566@lurza.secnetix.de> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200609220914.k8M9E1h8077566@lurza.secnetix.de> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i Cc: Subject: Re: geom - help ... X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: rick-freebsd@kiwi-computer.com List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 22 Sep 2006 13:39:02 -0000 On Fri, Sep 22, 2006 at 11:14:01AM +0200, Oliver Fromme wrote: > Rick C. Petty wrote: > > Is everybody forgetting about gvinum? > > I _try_ to forget it. :-) Exactly the type of attitude I predicted. So let's force everybody who has terabytes in vinum-managed containers to migrate! I mean, who *doesn't* have a few extra TB of disk space available to aid with that migration? > Seriously, we've been running vinum with FreeBSD 4.x for > six years. When upgrading to 6.x (skipping 5.x entirely), > we changed to gmirror, and my impression is that it is > much better and easier to manage. I really like it. Once I wouldn't say it's at all better, although it was easier to setup just a mirror. Vinum is a volume manager, so I expect it to be more complex than just setting up a mirror. But I certainly wouldn't call it better. My mirror rebuilds *every* power outtage (and sometimes even at expected shutdowns), a behavior I have not witnessed with gvinum. I have yet to see anyone address the inability to change your geom containers when dealing with live filesystems. Until this is "fixed", comparing gvinum to other geom classes is apples to oranges. If you haven't yet been bitten by this problem, then it's no wonder you really like it. > you're familiar with the GEOM concepts, vinum seems to be > an unnecessarily complex and inflexible beast. > > That's just my personal opinion, of course, YMMV. I am quite familiar with GEOM and I was sad the day vinum was dropped and gvinum wasn't even close to par with it. It has since improved. I wouldn't say it's unnecessarily complex or at all inflexible, maybe you're just not used to managing lots of large volumes? I agree that geom is more flexible, and once all the bugs are worked out of all the layers, maybe someone will write "fvm" to make managing the volumes easier. I like g/vinum's ability to edit the entire infrastructure from a single configuration file. Having to repeatedly type a hundred geom commands sounds like room for human error. Your opinion noted and ignored. I'm glad others agree with g/vinum's importance, or all the poor admins with vinum-managed volumes would be left out in the cold. -- Rick C. Petty