On 09/14/2011 12:28 AM, Felix Miata wrote:
On 2011/09/13 23:06 (GMT-0500) Duaine Hechler composed:
So I took of RAID and every night I manually run "rsync" to keep the two drives in sync.
At least for me, this provides a "live" backup and a "simulated" RAID condition.
A good example of the use of this simulated RAID, is when I update to newer versions.
Before I start the upgrade, I rsync the drives. This way I have a quick backout plan.
So in conclusion, RAID 1 is GREAT until you do a major screw up - then BOTH drives are not usable.
With HDs so large as they are any more it borders on incompetence to not have multiple / partitions, a first, a next, and a 3rd or more for experimental. The first is just that, the first OS installed. Then at "upgrade" time, install the "upgrade" to the "next" partition, leaving the first undisturbed. Only after "next" is confirmed suitable do you "convert" it to main, which first immediately before was, and after which first becomes an online backup until next2 becomes available. Meanwhile a third or more are available for testing devel version(s) and/or other distros. In this scenario, /home and other user data partitions, if any, are separate, and mountable as such under any / you have booted. Some care must be taken about user data to prevent corruption switching among non-matching versions of software under the various installed versions of OS, but this is not difficult.
My two RAID1 systems have 3 OS / md devices each, one md device for /tmp, one md device for /home, and couple of other md devices for other data. /boot I don't make into RAID because I see little point. I clone (then set a new UUID and label) the /boot from the #1 HD to the #2 so that it can readily be used as a sole boot device in case the #1 HD dies. I use labels for devices in menu.lst and fstab, which are a bit easier for human eyes to maintain than device ID or UUID.
I have eSATA HDs for backing up, which are only powered at backup times, but much faster at transferring data than USB 2.0. Although, I already have a "/", swap and /home, I'm doing anything that I need anything this complicated. And, I've learned from my mainframe days, NOT to be on the bleeding edge of upgrading.
I'm just a simple home and small business user of Linux. And, if I really want to experiment, I can always use VirtualBox. Duaine -- Duaine Hechler Piano, Player Piano, Pump Organ Tuning, Servicing& Rebuilding Reed Organ Society Member Florissant, MO 63034 (314) 838-5587 dahechler@att.net www.hechlerpianoandorgan.com -- Home& Business user of Linux - 11 years -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org