Date: Sun, 18 Nov 2001 02:02:50 -0500 From: "Andrew C. Hornback" <achornback@worldnet.att.net> To: "Lord Raiden" <raiden23@netzero.net>, <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: RE: Raid and FreeBSD Message-ID: <003601c16fff$09150280$6600000a@ach.domain> In-Reply-To: <4.2.0.58.20011118010023.00a0c760@pop.netzero.net>
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> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG]On Behalf Of Lord Raiden > Sent: Sunday, November 18, 2001 1:10 AM > To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG > Subject: Raid and FreeBSD > > Ok, silly question. I know BSD kinda does this already > with the way it > mounts the file system, but is it possible to setup a raid on a > BSD box, or > is it entirely unnessisary because of the way the file system is > setup? I'm not really sure. I kinda understand how the whole > file system > work and how it mounts whole drives as directory trees, but the > rest of it > eludes me. Yes, you can mount a RAID array as a single volume, and yes it will work either via a hardware or software RAID solution. > I'm looking at doing one of my servers as a Raid5 array, a > 20 gig drive > for the main, with BSD installed on it and all nessisary root and system > files, etc taking up that drive. Okay... you may want to consider doing a mirror of this drive if the machine is going to be extremely important. Not only would it improve system responsiveness when you're working within the file systems contained on the array, you'd get redundancy... and common wisdom is that it's cheaper to replace bad hardware than it is to replace an entire software configuration. > The other 5 drives in the array > (each of > which will be 60gig) I'd like to make into a stripped volumn, raid 5 if > possible From a hardware standpoint, that depends on whether or not your controller supports RAID 5. Most of them do, but you would need to check your specifications. > and mount it as a single virtual folder. I've seen where Win2k > can do something like this, mounting whole raid arrays as a > single virtual > folder on the main HD. So I'm curious if it's possible to do stuff like > that? It's entirely possible, and I've done it before using a hardware RAID controller. > The idea is BSD runs off the main drive, the 5 other drives > that are going > to take the beating will contain the user files and personal storage as > well as departmental and company mail files, centralized HR, sales, > Development, etc type files. Basically one huge file server. So instead > of having 6 smaller BSD file servers, I want to mount it onto one huge > workhorse to ease administration, and to make room for the other servers > "the boss" insists we have. Sounds like a good idea. However, being that so many important uses are getting condensed into one machine, you would also want to think about a backup solution. Additionally, you may want to add other redundancy through hot swappable drives, hot spare drives, and redundant power supplies. > So, any ideas anyone? Oh, and this will be running off of > dual Athlon > XP's at 1.6ghz I think (I'm not the one making the machine mind > you, so I'm > guessing. My only job is to make the darned thing work) like 1.5 gig of > ram and of course scsi HD's all running at I think the latest > scsi standard > which pushes I think 150mps. Correct me if I'm wrong, but again, I'm not > doing the HW. :) *nods* Sounds like a good setup... you'd want to determine which RAID controller you're using, and probably max it out as far as cache. Additionally, you would probably want to find one that has battery backed cache, as an added line of defense. The latest SCSI standard is Ultra320, 320 MB/s burst rate. --- Andy To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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