Date: Sun, 27 Feb 2005 18:34:09 +0000 From: Robert Slade <bsd@bathnetworks.com> To: Ean Kingston <ean@hedron.org> Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: FreeBSD 5.3 - Raid Message-ID: <1109529248.29605.5.camel@lmail.bathnetworks.co.uk> In-Reply-To: <200502271026.29797.ean@hedron.org> References: <200502271359.36162.bsd@bathnetworks.com> <200502271026.29797.ean@hedron.org>
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On Sun, 2005-02-27 at 15:26, Ean Kingston wrote: > On February 27, 2005 08:59 am, Robert Slade wrote: > > Hi, > > > > Sorry if this is dumb question. > > > > I have a new install of FreeBSD on a single IDE drive. I have backed this > > up so I am not too concerned about drive failure. I have now added 2, 250 > > Gbyte drives (ad3 and ad4) to hold data. I would like to mirror them using > > sofware raid and mount them as /home to hold the users data which is > > critical. > > > > I have read the manual and searched the web for a simple way to do the > > above. The manual seems to cover complex solutions and may be somewhat > > behind the times. > > The handbook is pretty up to date (I just looked at it). What confused me is that it did not seem to cover GEOM which came up during my searches. > > I would suggest you ignore the section that describes 'ccd'. It is easier to > set up than vinum but I have found the current implementation of ccd to be > unreliable. > > If you are using FreeBSD 5.x (hopefully 5.3), use gvinum instead of vinum. It > works the same way (commands and options) as vinum but (from what I > understand) it has some improvements. I am using 5.3. > > > I guess what I am looking for is a howto couched in such a way that even a > > windows user can understand :-). > > I assume you have physically installed your two disks (ad3, ad4). > > If you have not done so yet, use fdisk(8) to create a single slice (what > Windows calls a partition). This can also be done through sysinstall > > Also, if you have not done so yet, use bsdlabel(8) to create a FreeBSD > partition (no Windows equivalent). Be sure to set the 'fstype' to 'vinum'. > > At this stage I will assume that you have set up your two disks so that you > have ad3s1a and ad4s1a as the slices you wish to use for vinum. I think you > can do this with sysinstall as well. > > NOTE: you do not need to use newfs to create the filesystem, that would happen > after you have setup your RAID volumes. > > Create a file, we will call it gvinum.conf and put the following into it: > > # Define the FreeBSD Partitions to be used for Vinum > drive a device /dev/ad3s1a > drive b device /dev/ad4s1a > # > # Define each volume/plex/subdisk > volume home # home volume > plex org concat # concatinated plex (1st half of mirror) > sd length 8192m drive a # 1st subdisk of concatinated plex > plex org concat # concatinated plex (2nd half of mirror) > sd length 8192m drive b # 1st subdisk of 2nd concatinated plex > > Now, use the vinum(8) 'create' command to set things up using the > configuration file. > > You should now have a /dev/gvinum/home device. You can newfs it, mount it, and > add it to your /etc/fstab. > > newfs /dev/gvinum/home > > mount /dev/gvinum/home /home > > > Any suggestions please. > > Do read and try to understand chapter 17 of the FreeBSD handbook if you want > to get into software RAID. > > Rob, you really need to understand how software RAID works if you want to take > advantage of it. When you have a disk failure, you need to know what to do to > recover your data. In order to do that you really need to understand how the > software RAID works. > > You may want to consider setting up a seconds FreeBSD partition on each of > your two new disks so that you can fiddle with RAID and figure out how to > recover from a disk failure. Ean, Many many thanks for your explanation. I do take your points regarding understanding how the raid works before providing it for users. I have a little time before the box has to go live and I will use it check the system. Rob
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