How to create a terabyte storage array?

[Ed Fletcher]

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Anders Karlsson wrote:
> On 11/30/05, Martin Schmeisser <SchmeisserMartin at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> [snip]
> 
> 
>>Hi all,
>>
>>i believe its ok to put a 2 gig /boot partition on ONE of the disks..
>>Linux Software Raid can handle different media sizes nicely
> 
> 
> It is okay to have that /boot partition as an MD device (i.e.
> mirrored) as well, whether that is Original + 1 Copy or Original + 4
> Copies. I would advocate mirroring your root or boot partition as a
> safety precaution.
> 
> I boot my kernel with 'root=/dev/md0' and that works fine. hda1 and
> hdc1 is the two parts in that mirror, so grub has no problems locating
> my kernel.

I think that you are better off having the boot drive separate from
the data drive/array.  Otherwise, you might not be able to boot if a
drive on the array fails.  If your boot drive is separate, then you
just replace the failed array drive and wait while it automatically
rebuilds.

The boot drive doesn't have to be a large drive.  Especially if you
don't load X.  I find that using a command line is good enough on a
server and I save a lot of space by not using windows.  And almost
everyone has a small, old drive sitting around that would be great in
this environment.

And while I'm on the subject of servers, I think that it's worth
noting that you don't need much of a machine.  I have a raid 5 array
at home running on a P-Pro 180.  It served up samba, ftp, apache (very
light load) and I can burn cd's on it.  Never got the load up very
high.  (Hmm . . . well it's still at home but not running.  The four
40 GB disks gave me 120 GB of raid 5.  I now have one 250 GB in an
external USB case.  Uses a lot less electricity.)  Hmm . . . Another
good point, get an extra power supply just for the array.  I found
that I needed a second one in my server.

HTH,
Ed
- --
Ed Fletcher
ed at fletcher.ca

When one door of happiness closes, another opens;
but often we look so long at the closed door that
we do not see the one which has opened for us.
- - Helen Keller
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