From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 25 01:09:33 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 186C816A4B3 for ; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 01:09:33 -0700 (PDT) Received: from rowan.oak-wood.co.uk (rowan.oak-wood.co.uk [62.3.200.114]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id A6FE543FBF for ; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 01:09:31 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from lists@oak-wood.co.uk) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by rowan.oak-wood.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id E2C9631F98 for ; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 09:09:29 +0100 (BST) Received: from rowan.oak-wood.co.uk ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (rowan.oak-wood.co.uk [127.0.0.1:10024]) (amavisd-new) with LMTP id 14673-02-3 for ; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 09:09:29 +0100 (BST) Received: from celandine.oak-wood.co.uk (celandine.oak-wood.co.uk [62.3.200.115]) by rowan.oak-wood.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id E1E5731F97 for ; Thu, 25 Sep 2003 09:09:28 +0100 (BST) Message-ID: Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 09:09:12 +0100 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org From: Chris Hastie References: <5IdVrgCNpXb$EwLw@celandine.oak-wood.co.uk> <20030921103706.GA47741@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <20030921103706.GA47741@happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=us-ascii;format=flowed User-Agent: Turnpike/6.02-U () X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-20021116 on rowan.oak-wood.co.uk Subject: Software RAID-1 - root filesystem confusion X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 25 Sep 2003 08:09:33 -0000 On Sun, 21 Sep 2003, Matthew Seaman wrote >On Sun, Sep 21, 2003 at 11:15:41AM +0100, Chris Hastie wrote: >> I'm looking at building a FreeBSD server with two identical 60GB hard >> drives configured with software RAID-1. What would be the best way to >> set about this? > >The Handbook is your friend: > > http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/vinum-root.html >In fact, unless your hardware requires you to run 5.x, I'd strongly >recommend that you stick with 4.8-RELEASE (or 4.9-RELEASE due out in >the next few weeks). Thanks. I read that handbook chapter, together with and lots of other stuff, and I think my head is about to explode :) Since this isn't really a production server I'm afraid I ignored your advice and went for 5.1. I partitioned the disks much as described in the 'Bootstrapping Vinum' article. I've just about got my head around how the setup described there works, but it seems there are better ways of doing things on 5.1. Trouble is, I can't work out what they are, or how to get from where I am to there. It seems I need to create a vinum volume for my root filesystem. I can't (I think) just create a volume overlapping the existing root filesystem because it is at the beginning of the disk. Without allowing for Vinum's headers my MBR is likely to get trashed. Compared to the example in the handbook life is slightly complicated by the fact that I have swap partitions second on both disks, so I'm guessing I need two vinum partitions per disk, one overlapping everything before the swap, and one overlapping everything after. So, can I copy my root filesystem to somewhere else, create a vinum volume for root somewhere near the beginning of the disk but allowing for the requisite 265 blocks at the beginning and then copy the root filesystem back to this? I'm presuming some of this may need to be done from a fixit media. Or should I just start again with a different arrangements of partitions? I've done nothing but install vanilla 5.1 so far, so this is not a major problem. Except that the machine boots fine off a CD, but then refuses to see the CD as installation media so I had to install over FTP - not the fastest way of doing things :( Thanks for any help -- Chris Hastie