From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Thu Oct 8 00:26:49 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DB4109D09EA for ; Thu, 8 Oct 2015 00:26:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "wonkity.com", Issuer "wonkity.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 8341B15E for ; Thu, 8 Oct 2015 00:26:49 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2) with ESMTPS id t980QfqR084659 (version=TLSv1.2 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Wed, 7 Oct 2015 18:26:41 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.15.2/8.15.2/Submit) with ESMTP id t980QfDM084656; Wed, 7 Oct 2015 18:26:41 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2015 18:26:41 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: "William A. Mahaffey III" cc: FreeBSD Questions !!!! Subject: Re: The saga continues In-Reply-To: <56159C14.2070207@hiwaay.net> Message-ID: References: <5613CA68.6090909@hiwaay.net> <20151006212741.0e128a23.freebsd@edvax.de> <5614278F.10400@hiwaay.net> <56159C14.2070207@hiwaay.net> User-Agent: Alpine 2.20 (BSF 67 2015-01-07) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Wed, 07 Oct 2015 18:26:41 -0600 (MDT) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2015 00:26:50 -0000 On Wed, 7 Oct 2015, William A. Mahaffey III wrote: >> Please read the warning at the top of that page. The Handbook shows the >> right way of using gmirror(8). My page on it mirrors GPT partitions, which >> is likely to be a problem if one of the drives ever fails. If you >> absolutely have to use gmirror(8) with GPT, use only one partition per >> drive. >> > > > Can I partition the drives using '-s MBR', then mirror some of the partitions > & create '-s BSD' slices inside of those mirrors ? Ow, my brain. Why are you simultaneously creating safe data storage along with ultra-unsafe data storage? What is the end goal? Multiple mirrors between drive partitions is potentially dangerous. Consider that drives often die only a few days or hours apart. Now think of a two-drive system with multiple mirrored partitions. One drive has died. Put in a new drive, create the multiple partitions on it, and add them to the mirrors. All of them start replicating at the same time, putting a big load on the original still-working drive. The drive that is the same age as the drive that failed... > Specifically, I would partition each drive into 4 primary partitions, > /boot, swap, 1 partition to be mirrored & then sliced up as per the > handbook, & 1 partition to be striped & then sliced up ? I would > probably mirror /boot as well, if feasible. It seems this might > comport w/ all of the restrictions & possible meta-data conflicts, but > I am definitely out of my area, hence the questions. TIA & have a good > one. /boot is a directory in /, the boot partition is just a place to store bootcode. They are separate things. What is the function of the RAID0 here? Can it be replaced with tmpfs or maybe an SSD?