FreeBSD - software raid

[Bill Moran]

Moti Levy wrote:
> well,
> it says :
> For this to be possible at all, the following requirements must be met for
> the root volume:
> 
>   a.. The root volume must not be striped or RAID-5.
> 
>   b.. The root volume must not contain more than one concatenated subdisk
> per plex.
> 
> and i want :
> 
> 
>>>I want to use all 4 drives as a raid 5 array and use the combined space

Could you please configure your mailer not to break off lines like this.  It
makes your messages very difficult to read.

In answer to your question, I pose another question:

Do you really need so much space on the root partition that you must stripe it?
Why not just mirror the root partition and then stripe the remaining partitions?
My root partition is only 200M, and that's more than I've ever needed.

If you ABSOLUTELY MUST stripe the root partition, then you are correct, you can't
do it.  Buy a hardware raid card.
I can't see any logical reason for such a requirement, however.

> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Bill Moran" <wmoran at potentialtech.com>
> To: "Moti Levy" <moti at flncs.com>
> Cc: <questions at freebsd.org>
> Sent: Thursday, June 19, 2003 9:49 AM
> Subject: Re: FreeBSD - software raid
> 
> 
> 
>>Moti Levy wrote:
>>
>>>Hi,
>>>before I do the unthinkable and use Linux for a server , I ask for your
>>>help.
>>>I have a set of 4 IDE drives .
>>>I need to build a file server that'll run samba/nfs
>>
>>I've done this.  Works very well.
>>
>>
>>>I want to use all 4 drives as a raid 5 array and use the combined space
> 
> for
> 
>>>storage.
>>>is there a way to do it with FreeBSD ?
>>>I looked at ccd and vinum but as far as my understanding goes , I cant
> 
> use
> 
>>>it during setup but rather build the
>>>system first and than use ccd/vinum on all BUT the system disk .
>>>am I wrong ?
>>
>>Yes.
>>
>>
>>>is there a solution out there ?
>>
>>You can use all four drives in your Vinum array.  There used to be a
>>restriction that the root partition could not be part of the Vinum array,
>>but that's no longer the case, see the Vinum section of the handbook:
>>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/vinum-vinum.html
>>And specifically this:
>>http://www.freebsd.org/doc/en_US.ISO8859-1/books/handbook/vinum-root.html



-- 
Bill Moran
Potential Technologies
http://www.potentialtech.com