Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 18:29:06 -0800 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> Cc: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: [Vinum] Stupid benchmark: newfsstone Message-ID: <199811130229.SAA02465@dingo.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:51:34 %2B1030." <19981113125134.M781@freebie.lemis.com>
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> >> The four-layer concepts used by Veritas and Vinum have always been > >> difficult to understand. I'm trying to work out how to explain them > >> better, but taking the Microsoft-style "don't worry, little boy, I'll > >> do it all for you" approach is IMO not the right way. > > > > I think it's a mistake to conceal all the workings, but it's also a > > mistake to assume that for the "common case", you need to thrust all of > > it into the novice's face. > > > > The "common case" for RAID applications seems to be: "I have these > > disk units, and I want to make them into a RAID volume". So the > > required functionality is: > > > > 1) Input the disks to participate in the volume. > > drive a device /dev/da0h > drive b device /dev/da1h > drive c device /dev/da2h > drive d device /dev/da3h > drive e device /dev/da4h > > > 2) Input the RAID model to be used. > > plex org raid5 256k > > > Step 2 should check the sizes of the disks selected in step 1, and make > > it clear that you can only get striped or RAID 5 volumes if the disks > > are all the same size. > > You haven't said how big you want it yet. Yes I have. I've said I want to use all of these disks. Use them all, dammit. > > If they're within 10% or so of each other, it should probably ignore > > the excess on the larger drives. > > Why? That would be a waste. Just say: > > sd drive a length 5g > sd drive b length 5g > sd drive c length 5g > sd drive d length 5g > sd drive e length 5g If you have two drives 4.1GB and two that are 4.3GB, and you want to stripe them, you have to use a base size of 4.1GB and throw away 400MB. Either that, or you subdivide the disks into multiple partitions looking for the largest common submultiple. Yuck. > None of this requires a GUI, of course, and IMO none of it is any > easier with a GUI. I never said it needed a GUI. I said it needed a tool that eliminated the unnecessary calculations. The tool should do everything required to translate the directive "I want a RAID x volume on these disks" into a vinum configuration. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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