From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed May 21 16:52:03 2008 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 041821065679 for ; Wed, 21 May 2008 16:52:03 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david.robillard@gmail.com) Received: from rv-out-0506.google.com (rv-out-0506.google.com [209.85.198.238]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C7EC58FC16 for ; Wed, 21 May 2008 16:52:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from david.robillard@gmail.com) Received: by rv-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id b25so2862028rvf.43 for ; Wed, 21 May 2008 09:52:02 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; bh=2ylHGVhDSOq/DUD3EKzmhUQ4oYCrkzlRsRTIqck6M74=; b=Xp8tu4i1UI1H/Kfd8Xuj4dW7xOS6DuuR4mtflAysFi305GJCPhLJXfSFMjubziTYBDycJsaAzVQuHrxpVzJFae0Ls7zCSF4tOGN632Zia/TAiMJ2ERgkjqAe2kQRjR4dV7/zmK3/JACAFF4ML5G23QEuxbiVKBvm3LcooPa0/q8= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition; b=qmsHQwcG3IZbRBfYV92+bEoND9Svf2sq6umG9+eq/CpoI0HnGVsMPlleGbt3HeZzwK7dD9oKVbnysYgAfcpGU9n1dGnu0hmMXiIYQfWy1dFpvlb8xruifPj1O03y5oAWV7/P1JpVMPyPbW7l4e4U8SBrVO5ldNTGWgjbOLo1YNo= Received: by 10.141.44.13 with SMTP id w13mr5196205rvj.181.1211388722299; Wed, 21 May 2008 09:52:02 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.140.126.11 with HTTP; Wed, 21 May 2008 09:52:02 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <226ae0c60805210952i1eaea90avf04039aea2aa807e@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 12:52:02 -0400 From: "David Robillard" To: "Matias Surdi" MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Large filesystems help/ideas 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: Wed, 21 May 2008 16:52:03 -0000 > Hi, > I'm implementing a backup solution at work.We've bought a x86 server > with two hardware raid 5 with for a total storage capacity of about 7Tb. > > For the software we are using for backups, the ideal scenario would be > to have just one "big disk" so that no space problems would appear. > > I've tried to install FreeBSD 7 with no success, as it seems... the > sysinstall tool doesn't support such big slices. > > I've read about the "Large Data Storage on FreeBSD" but I'm still confused. > > I've also thought on using slices of 1Tb, and join all them using vinum. > What do you think about this last option? > > Thanks a lot for your help. I would suggest to use different partitions for your OS and another big one for your backup data. In fact, if you can use two smaller disks in RAID 1 for the OS and leave your two RAID 5 for the backup data alone, that would be even better. This way you can both a) install the OS without any problem and b) prevent a *very* long fsck in case the machine crashes and your 7TB partition is broken beyond the background fsck process. Once you have the OS installed on the smaller partitions, you can then use gpt(8) to create your 2TB+ filesystems. YMMV. We use a scenario quite identical as what you're trying to do. We use a few ports to do so, like sysutils/rsnapshot and shells/rssh with rsync and OpenSSH along with an encrypted backup volume and OpenPGP to encrypt the tapes. For VMWare images, we use sysutils/rdiff-backup. It works very well for 100+ mixed FreeBSD, RedHat, Ubuntu and AIX hosts. If you need any help with the backup setup and all, just ask, I'll send you the howto. Have fun, DA+ -- David Robillard UNIX systems administrator & Oracle DBA CISSP, RHCE & Sun Certified Security Administrator Montreal: +1 514 966 0122