From owner-freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jul 15 23:23:11 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 92789CD1 for ; Mon, 15 Jul 2013 23:23:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 3E5A1F9 for ; Mon, 15 Jul 2013 23:23:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id r6FNNAxZ074295 for ; Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:23:10 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) with ESMTP id r6FNNAF1074292 for ; Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:23:10 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:23:10 -0600 (MDT) From: Warren Block To: freebsd-doc@FreeBSD.org Subject: Project GRUDS: Handbook disk reorg Message-ID: User-Agent: Alpine 2.00 (BSF 1167 2008-08-23) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Mon, 15 Jul 2013 17:23:10 -0600 (MDT) X-BeenThere: freebsd-doc@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Documentation project List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 15 Jul 2013 23:23:11 -0000 Project GRUDS (Grand Unified Disk Storage) Goal: Edit and rewrite the scattered, repetitive, and conflicting Handbook sections on disk storage into a unified group. This would be a separate in the Handbook, starting where chapter 19, Storage, currently begins. The problem: Right now there are at least three different places in the Handbook show disk partitioning methods and guidelines. All are different, and none really complete. An in-depth chapter on partitioning would allow sections to link to it and dispense with long explanations that distract from the current topic. Besides reducing redundancy, this would make many sections shorter and let users familiar with the concepts skip ahead easily. It's a big project, but even as a plan would help future Handbook contributions go in the right place. Tentative outline: Part 4:Disk Storage Introduction Quick start links to current methods for mirror (gmirror and ZFS) BIOS RAID (graid) RAID-5/RAID-Z (ZFS) Disk Hardware Chapter Introduction Blocks 512-byte Advanced Format Hardware RAID versus software RAID Comparison, advantages and disadvantages HAST? Device names SATA, IDE, SCSI, USB, most common hardware RAID device names Conclusion Disk Partitions Chapter Introduction Partitioning Schemes Metadata (types, locations, conflicts) MBR GPT Others Conclusion Labels Chapter (expanded from existing GEOM "Labeling Disk Devices") Introduction easy device relocatability provided by geom_label (others?) GPT labels Generic labels (glabel(8)) Filesystem labels "Unique ID" labels GPT UUID ufsid others? Conclusion GEOM Chapter ("Disk Device Transformations with GEOM"?) Introduction what is GEOM? from existing GEOM chapter additional section on graid(8) sorted in order of most common usage (gmirror, graid, ...) Conclusion Filesystems Chapter Introduction what are filesystems? UFS traditional split-filesystem layout newer, unified everything in root layout Other filesystems ext2, NTFS, etc mention NFS, with pointer to NFS section in "Network Servers" mention ZFS, and how it is more than a filesystem, and will be covered in the next chapter Conclusion ZFS Chapter neither fish nor fowl, it's a dessert topping *and* a floor wax both device and filesystem Introduction what is it? brief mention of best capabilities in-depth Conclusion Backup Chapter Introduction UFS Backup (main part from existing Storage chapter) ZFS Backup Conclusion