From owner-freebsd-geom@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 19 18:51:39 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BE4C816A4CE; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:51:39 +0000 (GMT) Received: from odin.ac.hmc.edu (Odin.AC.HMC.Edu [134.173.32.75]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8E69F43D45; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:51:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from brdavis@odin.ac.hmc.edu) Received: from odin.ac.hmc.edu (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by odin.ac.hmc.edu (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id j0JItvKI027994; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:55:57 -0800 Received: (from brdavis@localhost) by odin.ac.hmc.edu (8.13.0/8.13.0/Submit) id j0JItvDG027993; Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:55:57 -0800 Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 10:55:57 -0800 From: Brooks Davis To: Paul Mather Message-ID: <20050119185557.GA25555@odin.ac.hmc.edu> References: <20050110163634.GA47526@engelschall.com> <1106144901.40972.11.camel@zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="X1bOJ3K7DJ5YkBrT" Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <1106144901.40972.11.camel@zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.1i X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=8.0 tests=none autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on odin.ac.hmc.edu cc: "Ralf S. Engelschall" cc: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org Subject: Re: [HOWTO] FreeBSD system disk mirroring with GEOM X-BeenThere: freebsd-geom@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: GEOM-specific discussions and implementations List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 19 Jan 2005 18:51:39 -0000 --X1bOJ3K7DJ5YkBrT Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Wed, Jan 19, 2005 at 09:28:21AM -0500, Paul Mather wrote: > On Mon, 2005-01-10 at 17:36 +0100, Ralf S. Engelschall wrote: > > FYI: I've prepared a detailed step-by-step command list on how to > > establish a RAID-1 (mirror) for the system partitions with GEOM and > > gmirror(8). You can find the resulting HOWTO document under > > http://people.freebsd.org/~rse/mirror/ >=20 > Congratulations on a useful and comprehensive HOWTO! I have only one > question: in the first approach ("Whole Disk, Acceptable, Less > Flexible"), why do you create a slice if you are using the whole disk > anyway? Is this simply because it's good form to put a valid partition > table on a bootable PC disk? >=20 > The reason I ask is because when I set up my bootable gmirror (using a > technique similar to the one you describe) I omitted the fdisk step and > used bsdlabel on (my equivalent of) /dev/mirror/gm0 (not gm0s1). I've > not had any problems booting the mirror, nor in using it. It also means > one less GEOM layer to go through, right? Since most RAID systems store their configuration infomration at the back of the disk, this is probalby OK since most BIOS's are OK with MRB partition tables that specify a geometry smaller then the disk. Given the generally broken state of BIOS implementations, I'm sure there's a least one out there that freaks out, but you appear not to have it. :-) -- Brooks --=20 Any statement of the form "X is the one, true Y" is FALSE. PGP fingerprint 655D 519C 26A7 82E7 2529 9BF0 5D8E 8BE9 F238 1AD4 --X1bOJ3K7DJ5YkBrT Content-Type: application/pgp-signature Content-Disposition: inline -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.1 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFB7q08XY6L6fI4GtQRAgNdAJ4ldFiQtinYFmCAnWJkAvclBeLJigCdFq4A F9rL7o0oYsTY3Lg7FSfPk/w= =5D4o -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --X1bOJ3K7DJ5YkBrT--