Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:34:08 -0500 From: Paul Mather <paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu> To: Vivek Khera <vivek@khera.org> Cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: opinion on which software RAID to use Message-ID: <1141331648.19189.7.camel@zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org> In-Reply-To: <AD79084E-2D70-47E3-ABF7-ED633BB8B446@khera.org> References: <AD79084E-2D70-47E3-ABF7-ED633BB8B446@khera.org>
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On Thu, 2006-03-02 at 14:11 -0500, Vivek Khera wrote:
> Anyhow, I see at least three ways to set up a mirror of these drives
> and/or partitions:
>
> gvinum
> gmirror
> atacontrol
>
> Any opinions on which has both qualities: easy to configure/manage
> (ie, recover after failure) and performance? The handbook RAID page
> doesn't even mention gmirror. The atacontrol seems very simple to
> use, at least.
>
> Let me know what you think. Thanks!
For basic mirroring, I'd say go for gmirror. I've been using it
successfully for a long time. I migrated to it from vinum/gvinum
because it offered more flexible read load-balancing (you can choose
between various policies) and easier recovery. It can even do N-way
mirroring.
I tried atacontrol in the past, but could never get it to reconstruct
after a simulated failure. With gmirror, you have the option of
automatic or manual reconstruction for failed/stale providers.
You might want to consider gvinum if you think you might want to use
RAID 5 or LVM-type aggregations in the future, but if you are just
planning on mirroring I'd strongly suggest going with gmirror.
Cheers,
Paul.
--
e-mail: paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu
"Without music to decorate it, time is just a bunch of boring production
deadlines or dates by which bills must be paid."
--- Frank Vincent Zappa
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