Date: Tue, 21 Sep 2004 00:31:51 -0400 From: Paul Mather <paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu> To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Subject: Fresh install onto geom_stripe or geom_mirror? Message-ID: <1095741109.9448.84.camel@zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org>
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Does anyone have any advice as to the best way to do a fresh install
onto an all-mirrored or all-striped geom setup?
I'm about to obtain a Dell Optiplex (GX280?) on which I plan to run some
simulation experiments. The system currently has Windows XP installed
(so I believe, anyway), and I plan on wiping that and installing
RELENG_5 (or perhaps HEAD). The PC has two 80 GB drives fitted that I'd
like either to mirror or stripe together as one "drive" and then install
onto that.
What is the best way to do that?
I run FreeBSD-CURRENT at home with a root-on-gvinum mirrored setup.
Currently, geom_vinum lacks good read load-balancing, which would be
advantageous to have when running my simulations. I will be reading and
writing (mostly reading) a multi-gigabyte Berkeley DB during the
simulation runs, so having both drives contribute to reads instead of
just one is pretty much a necessity.
(According to a recent freebsd-current digest, the load balancing issue
may now have been addressed in geom_vinum; I'm building a new kernel to
see if this is so. But, even if true, I don't really need the
complexity of the gvinum LVM and would like to try something more more
basic like geom_mirror or geom_stripe.)
Usually, when I install a system I do a minimal install; cvsup recent
sources; and then build a customised kernel and world. With "gmirror"
it is possible to create a mirror with only one initial provider. So, I
could perform a minimal install onto, say, ad0s1 and then create and
populate a mirror on ad2s1. After booting the mirror, ad0s1 could be
added to the mirror to get a true two-drive mirror. (Is it better to
use adXsY or just adX when creating mirrors? All the examples use the
raw devices, not slices.)
However, gstripe requires two initial providers according to the man
page, ruling out the above technique. :-\ Is there some alternative way
of creating a stripe covering two drives entirely on an
already-installed two-drive system?
Perhaps an alternative approach would be to have one slice containing a
conventional install of /, swap, /var, and /usr (perhaps mirrored via
geom_mirror), and then a second slice for, say, /data, that will be made
into a geom_stripe for the simulation data files after install.
Hints and suggestions welcomed. :-)
Cheers,
Paul.
--
e-mail: paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
--- Frank Vincent Zappa
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