Hello all. I am installing SUSE Professional 9 on computer with two 80 IDE hard drives. During custom partitioning I get a little lost. Here is my setup: I set aside 2G for 1st partition on drive 1. No format, only RAID I set aside 2G for 1st partition on drive 2. No format, only RAID I choose RAID option. Create RAID1 mirror array. Format filesystem as XFS and use / for mount point I set aside 2G for 2nd partition on drive 1. No format, only RAID I set asise 2G for 2nd partition on drive 2. No format, only RAId I choose RAID option. Create RAID1 mirror array. Format filesystem as Swap. I use the rest of space on drive 1 for one big RAID section I use the rest of space on drive 2 for one big RAID section I choose RAID option, Create RAID1 mirror array. Now here is my question: I do not format as any filesystem and don't assign a mount point. I select OK. Then I choose LVM and create one big LVM over the big RAID array and create smaller volumes for /var /home and /usr inside as XFS filesystems. Is this OK or am I doing it wrong? Should I be assigning mount point for last RAID array before LVM? I don't think so but need to make sure 100%. Thank you for help!! RS ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
On Mon, 2004-02-23 at 04:02, Rajesh Saxena wrote:
Hello all. I am installing SUSE Professional 9 on computer with two 80 IDE hard drives. During custom partitioning I get a little lost. Here is my setup:
I set aside 2G for 1st partition on drive 1. No format, only RAID I set aside 2G for 1st partition on drive 2. No format, only RAID I choose RAID option. Create RAID1 mirror array. Format filesystem as XFS and use / for mount point
I set aside 2G for 2nd partition on drive 1. No format, only RAID I set asise 2G for 2nd partition on drive 2. No format, only RAId I choose RAID option. Create RAID1 mirror array. Format filesystem as Swap.
I use the rest of space on drive 1 for one big RAID section I use the rest of space on drive 2 for one big RAID section I choose RAID option, Create RAID1 mirror array. Now here is my question: I do not format as any filesystem and don't assign a mount point. I select OK. Then I choose LVM and create one big LVM over the big RAID array and create smaller volumes for /var /home and /usr inside as XFS filesystems. Is this OK or am I doing it wrong? Should I be assigning mount point for last RAID array before LVM? I don't think so but need to make sure 100%. Thank you for help!!
RS
I don't understand all of the extra work here. Why not just create one large raid1 set using ALL of both disks and then partition it up. LVM was designed to combine multiple disks and make them appear as one larger disk controlling the size by using volume groups. Since you have already combined the disks using raid what you are trying to do is pointless. Just my $.02. -- Ken Schneider unix user since 1989 linux user since 1994 SuSE user since 1998 (5.2)
--- Kenneth Schneider
I don't understand all of the extra work here. Why not just create one large raid1 set using ALL of both disks and then partition it up.
Hi Kenneth! I find splitting up arrays seems like a natural choice. The last big array is the only one with LVM so / needs to be separate so lilo or grub can boot using it.
LVM was designed to combine multiple disks and make them appear as one larger disk controlling the size by using volume groups. Since you have already combined the disks using raid what you are trying to do is pointless.
RAID1 does not combine many disks into one it is mainly for recovery sake. If one drive fails then other can be used until maintenance is done. I am mainly using LVM for volume management and filesystem snapshots for backups. RS ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
On Monday 23 February 2004 09:53, Rajesh Saxena wrote:
--- Kenneth Schneider
wrote: I don't understand all of the extra work here. Why not just create one large raid1 set using ALL of both disks and then partition it up.
Hi Kenneth! I find splitting up arrays seems like a natural choice. The last big array is the only one with LVM so / needs to be separate so lilo or grub can boot using it.
LVM was designed to combine multiple disks and make them appear as one larger disk controlling the size by using volume groups. Since
you
have already combined the disks using raid what you are trying to do is pointless.
RAID1 does not combine many disks into one it is mainly for recovery sake. If one drive fails then other can be used until maintenance is done. I am mainly using LVM for volume management and filesystem snapshots for backups.
You are right, raid 1 does not combine, its simply mirroring. But Kenneth is right LVM is not needed here, and you are muddying the waters by insert it here. Other than a boot drive, there is little reason to split your big disk into many small ones. It is sometimes tricky to boot off of a software raid. Once you get the raid arrays set up, try withoug LVM and go directly to mounting the raid array and defining volumes therein. -- _____________________________________ John Andersen
Rajesh Saxena wrote:
Hello all. I am installing SUSE Professional 9 on computer with two 80 IDE hard drives. During custom partitioning I get a little lost. Here is my setup:
I set aside 2G for 1st partition on drive 1. No format, only RAID I set aside 2G for 1st partition on drive 2. No format, only RAID I choose RAID option. Create RAID1 mirror array. Format filesystem as XFS and use / for mount point
Consider the following space requirements for a full suse 9.0 install (these are from memory and rounded up): /opt 4GB / 500MB /usr 9GB /boot 50MB /var 1GB (smaller at first but it grows quickly) I think it'd be a good idea to make a non-RAID /boot partition. It'll work on R1 but I'm not sure it's encouraged.
I set aside 2G for 2nd partition on drive 1. No format, only RAID I set asise 2G for 2nd partition on drive 2. No format, only RAId I choose RAID option. Create RAID1 mirror array. Format filesystem as Swap.
I didn't know you could put swap on RAID...but if you can, 2G is pretty large. How much memory do you have?
I use the rest of space on drive 1 for one big RAID section I use the rest of space on drive 2 for one big RAID section I choose RAID option, Create RAID1 mirror array. Now here is my question: I do not format as any filesystem and don't assign a mount point. I select OK. Then I choose LVM and create one big LVM over the big RAID array and create smaller volumes for /var /home and /usr inside as XFS filesystems. Is this OK or am I doing it wrong?
This sounds correct. LVM wants only a physical device to form it's physical volume (PV). RAID provides that with your /mdX
Should I be assigning mount point for last RAID array before LVM?
No. Consider also your upgrade path. If you do not want to overwrite your current system before first trying out a new version (suse 9.1 for example) you should create an additional partition (non-LVM) for a new system to be installed to. I am regretting not having done this on several of my boxes b/c I've heard sometimes the upgrade destroys config files, etc. It'd be easiest to just have two large (5-10GB depending on how loaded you like your system) partitions for system installs then the rest of the space for data, swap, and boot, all of which can be shared by any running linux distro. Toggle between them for seamless upgrades (until they become too small for the new distros in the future) BR
Hello Brett.......
--- Brett Russ
I think it'd be a good idea to make a non-RAID /boot partition. It'll work on R1 but I'm not sure it's encouraged.
Yes the SUSE installer complains but with LILO it works without any problems. I will see maybe later I will repartition it. This is only a test server.
I didn't know you could put swap on RAID...but if you can, 2G is pretty large. How much memory do you have?
I have 1G of RAM and I will probably upgrade to 2G if necessary.
Consider also your upgrade path. If you do not want to overwrite your current system before first trying out a new version (suse 9.1 for example) you should create an additional partition (non-LVM) for a new system to be installed to. I am regretting not having done this on several of my boxes b/c I've heard sometimes the upgrade destroys config files, etc. It'd be easiest to just have two large (5-10GB depending on how loaded you like your system) partitions for system installs then the rest of the space for data, swap, and boot, all of which can be shared by any running linux distro. Toggle between them for seamless upgrades (until they become too small for the new distros in the future)
Yes I have read horror stories about upgrading to new release using YAST. I will test with APT for SUSE first because that seems to work good. If required I can add 120G drive for upgrade purposes. Thank you for ur reply. RS ______________________________________________________________________ Post your free ad now! http://personals.yahoo.ca
participants (4)
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Brett Russ
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John Andersen
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Kenneth Schneider
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Rajesh Saxena