From owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Thu Oct 8 02:52:16 2015 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@mailman.ysv.freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by mailman.ysv.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0EBB89D0389 for ; Thu, 8 Oct 2015 02:52:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from fly.hiwaay.net (fly.hiwaay.net [216.180.54.1]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id D2BC3D17 for ; Thu, 8 Oct 2015 02:52:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wam@hiwaay.net) Received: from kabini1.local (dynamic-216-186-213-32.knology.net [216.186.213.32] (may be forged)) (authenticated bits=0) by fly.hiwaay.net (8.13.8/8.13.8/fly) with ESMTP id t982qDDA011239 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES128-SHA bits=128 verify=NO) for ; Wed, 7 Oct 2015 21:52:13 -0500 Subject: Re: The saga continues References: <5613CA68.6090909@hiwaay.net> <20151006212741.0e128a23.freebsd@edvax.de> <5614278F.10400@hiwaay.net> <56159C14.2070207@hiwaay.net> Cc: FreeBSD Questions !!!! From: "William A. Mahaffey III" Message-ID: <5615DA5C.6010806@hiwaay.net> Date: Wed, 7 Oct 2015 21:57:42 -0453.75 User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; FreeBSD amd64; rv:38.0) Gecko/20100101 Thunderbird/38.2.0 MIME-Version: 1.0 In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.20 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Oct 2015 02:52:16 -0000 On 10/07/15 19:32, Warren Block wrote: > On Wed, 7 Oct 2015, William A. Mahaffey III wrote: > >>> Please read the warning at the top of that page. The Handbook shows >>> the right way of using gmirror(8). My page on it mirrors GPT >>> partitions, which is likely to be a problem if one of the drives >>> ever fails. If you absolutely have to use gmirror(8) with GPT, use >>> only one partition per drive. >>> >> >> >> Can I partition the drives using '-s MBR', then mirror some of the >> partitions & create '-s BSD' slices inside of those mirrors ? > > Ow, my brain. Why are you simultaneously creating safe data storage > along with ultra-unsafe data storage? What is the end goal? > > Multiple mirrors between drive partitions is potentially dangerous. > Consider that drives often die only a few days or hours apart. Now > think of a two-drive system with multiple mirrored partitions. One > drive has died. Put in a new drive, create the multiple partitions on > it, and add them to the mirrors. All of them start replicating at the > same time, putting a big load on the original still-working drive. > The drive that is the same age as the drive that failed... Creating the safe storage for the system so I could (hopefully) get it rebooted & reconstructed if 1 of the 2 HDD's croaks. If your scenario happens (both HDD's croak almost together, or the 2nd one croaks under the load of replicating), I'm fried anyway. That also argues against any mirroring at all, same thing happens if I mirror both drives as per the handbook. > >> Specifically, I would partition each drive into 4 primary partitions, >> /boot, swap, 1 partition to be mirrored & then sliced up as per the >> handbook, & 1 partition to be striped & then sliced up ? I would >> probably mirror /boot as well, if feasible. It seems this might >> comport w/ all of the restrictions & possible meta-data conflicts, >> but I am definitely out of my area, hence the questions. TIA & have a >> good one. > > /boot is a directory in /, the boot partition is just a place to store > bootcode. They are separate things. Agreed, bad nomenclature on my part .... it would be boot-partition, swap, mirrored-partition & striped partition. > > What is the function of the RAID0 here? Can it be replaced with tmpfs > or maybe an SSD? To maximize available space for storing movies, etc. I would be slicing it into 2 slices, for /usr/local & /home. All stuff here would be backed up elsewhere on the LAN and/or recreatable. I just want the largest possible pool of GiB's available. -- William A. Mahaffey III ---------------------------------------------------------------------- "The M1 Garand is without doubt the finest implement of war ever devised by man." -- Gen. George S. Patton Jr.