From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Aug 13 22:29:27 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 32AD516A418 for ; Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:29:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from modulok@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0910.google.com (rv-out-0910.google.com [209.85.198.186]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0B1E513C458 for ; Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:29:26 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from modulok@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0910.google.com with SMTP id f1so1117768rvb for ; Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:29:26 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=hcasiSAm3n00+5ttwBlab63GIOZNM+E1ivW2knDqWLe1Puyuk4m8+LUEPOHIg/xxfHiO5AZGp1sTRbl8Ht1i2sl22rBEtH06N92QGNBuPl7jJjSyb/77qvck9px0rLXu3pCN0xw9W+QxMhBy3eaD114cq1L4vqvgrHUFVcpoRv8= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=eXItyePoxt5a+4/4DhOcNnQAOG6kEDA5Wq0qUrBhqxuY5aA10W9+mLhTssrPvYDycR9jkd0Yr1L7jvThQZ3lak40eIawYCIgYWCzhMWC3ZqK2AHFhGWSUXSbVnj9Wj71oEr3BRVapp+lrlqRPZ2n3pSak9ZjjZF87pdSUJbcIek= Received: by 10.141.90.17 with SMTP id s17mr2411458rvl.1187044166753; Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:29:26 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.140.207.2 with HTTP; Mon, 13 Aug 2007 15:29:26 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <64c038660708131529w5c84f4c6g6ef8e5274a3128f5@mail.gmail.com> Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 16:29:26 -0600 From: Modulok To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Subject: Vinum configuration syntax X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 22:29:27 -0000 Take the following example vinum config file: drive a device /dev/da2a drive b device /dev/da3a volume rambo plex org concat sd length 512m drive a plex org concat sd length 512m drive b The keyword "concat" specifies the relationship between the plexes and the subdisks. All writes, are always written to all plexes of a given volume, thus the example above is a mirror with two plexes, each being comprised of one very small subdisk. I understand this. What I don't understand, is how to implement a RAID-5 volume. The only two vinum plex organizations listed in the handbook were "striped" and "concat". How do I implement striping with distributed parity (RAID 5)? This was not covered (or I missed it) in the handbook, or the vinum(4) manual page, or the gvinum(8) manual page, or in "The Complete FreeBSD". There is a lot of great material on how vinum is implemented and how great it will make your life, but painfully little on the actual configuration syntax. In the vinum(4) man page, it describes a number of mappings between subdisks and plexes including: "Concatenated", "Striped" and "RAID-5", however these are section headings and in the example config files, the keywords were "striped" and "concat", not "Striped" and "Concatenated" were used. There has to be at least one other subdisk to plex mapping: "Vinum implements the RAID-0, RAID-1 and RAID-5 models, both individually and in combination." RAID-5 is mentioned several times, but no examples were ever given. What is the plex organization keyword, "raid5", "raid-5", "RAID-5", "5", "parity", "disparity"? I could use trial and error, but there has to be a document with this information somewhere. Other than rummaging through source code, is there any additional documentation on vinum configuration syntax, (A strict specification would be great!)? I found a FreeBSD Diary article using vinum, but it wasn't for RAID-5, so no luck there. FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE -Modulok-