Vinum on Root

[Richard Johannesson]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org [mailto:owner-freebsd-
> questions at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Greg 'groggy' Lehey
> Sent: Tuesday, July 29, 2003 6:25 PM
> To: Richard Johannesson
> Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: Vinum on Root
> 
> On Tuesday, 29 July 2003 at 18:00:25 -0700, Richard Johannesson wrote:
> > Is it possible to create vinum on a root drive without using the offsets
> in
> > the vinum configuration file?
> 
> You need a configuration file to set up Vinum.  If you mean "Is it
> possible to create vinum on a root drive without specifying offsets in
> the vinum configuration file?", the answer is yes.

Sorry that's what I meant. Ok, that's good to hear.

> > What I trying to get to is that there seems to be two styles of getting
> > vinum setup on a root drive:
> > 	I. 1. setup unix partitions for swap, /, /usr, and /var
> > 	   2. install FreeBSD5.1
> 
> It doesn't have to be 5.1.
Ok, good to know.

> > 	   3. go through the bsdlabel -e
> > 	   3.1 modify the swap with the 281 offset
> > 	   3.2 add vinum partition h: with the same size as c:, but with a
> > 16 offset
> > 	   4. create a vinum config file
> > -->	   4.1 map each sub-disk to the exact size and offset as the unix
> > partitions
> >
> > 	II.1. setup unix partitions for swap and /
> > 	   2. install FreeBSD5.1
> > 	   3. go through the bsdlabel -e
> > 	   3.1 modify the swap with the 281 offset
> > 	   3.2 add vinum partition h: with the same size as c:, but with a
> > 16 offset
> > 	   4. create a vinum config file
> > -->	   4.1 create sub-disks using simply the size you want with no
> > offset
> >
> > Method I. comes from the Complete FreeBSD book. I actually got this to
> work,
> > but was wondering about the inflexibility of not being able to change
> the
> > partition sizes very easily.
> 
> Once you have Vinum up and running, you can add and remove plexes and
> move things around like that.
So, if I use Method I, as you specified in the book, can I then move those
particular partitions (/, /usr, /var) around without worrying about the
original unix partition layout (offsets etc)? So, the original /, /usr, /var
sizes and offsets won't limit the location of the /dev/vinum/root,
/dev/vinum/usr, /dev/vinum/var?


> > Method II. Can't get this to work yet, but if it can work then should be
> > superior given the flexibility that is gained.
> 
> That'll work, but then you need to populate the volumes.
> 
> > So, can Method II work on a root drive?
> 
> Sure.
> 
> > If Method II works, why would you then ever want to implement Method
> > I?
> 
> It's easier.  You don't have to find a way to put things in your new
> volumes.
Ok, Method I is the best way to bootstrap the whole process, and once you
have a base setup running on vinum you still have the flexibility of Method
II anyway. If that's right, then Method I is definitely the way to go.

> Greg

For the mirroring case, should the swap partitions be mirrored too?

Was under the impression that swap might be handled by a completely separate
process and that there was no need for vinum to have to handle any swap
stuff.

Thanks again,
Richard

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