From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 2 20:34:17 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1887216A420 for ; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 20:34:17 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu) Received: from gromit.dlib.vt.edu (gromit.dlib.vt.edu [128.173.49.29]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F93C43D46 for ; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 20:34:16 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu) Received: from zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org (pool-72-66-176-4.ronkva.east.verizon.net [72.66.176.4]) by gromit.dlib.vt.edu (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k22KYEtU015751 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 2 Mar 2006 15:34:15 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu) Received: from zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org (localhost.Chelsea-Ct.Org [127.0.0.1]) by zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k22KY9mf019398 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA bits=256 verify=OK); Thu, 2 Mar 2006 15:34:09 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu) Received: (from paul@localhost) by zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id k22KY818019397; Thu, 2 Mar 2006 15:34:08 -0500 (EST) (envelope-from paul@gromit.dlib.vt.edu) From: Paul Mather To: Vivek Khera In-Reply-To: References: Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 15:34:08 -0500 Message-Id: <1141331648.19189.7.camel@zappa.Chelsea-Ct.Org> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.4.2.1 FreeBSD GNOME Team Port Cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: opinion on which software RAID to use X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 02 Mar 2006 20:34:17 -0000 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