Best way to create a large data space

[stan]

On Fri, Jul 14, 2006 at 02:41:02PM -0400, John Nielsen wrote:
> On Friday 14 July 2006 13:39, stan wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 14, 2006 at 11:11:47AM -0400, John Nielsen wrote:
> > > On Friday 14 July 2006 10:37, John Nielsen wrote:
> > > > On Thursday 13 July 2006 20:24, stan wrote:
> > > > > On Thu, Jul 13, 2006 at 04:20:56PM -0400, John Nielsen wrote:
> > > > > > On Thursday 13 July 2006 08:34, stan wrote:
> > > > > > >  i have a Sun Ultra 40 with 4 500F SATA drives. I plan on using
> > > > > > > this machine primarily for a large data storage requirement.
> > > > > > >
> > > > > > >  What I want is one large /data partition. Given all the choices
> > > > > > > for doing this in FreeBSD (software) what's the "best" choice
> > > > > > > here? The partio will be shared via SAMBA if that affects the
> > > > > > > thhinking here.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > "Best" really depends on what your needs and goals are. Here's a
> > > > > > quick overview of what the choices ARE, based mostly on memory.
> > > > > > Corrections and additions welcome. I'll try to make some notes
> > > > > > about pros and cons as well.
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks for the nice summary.
> > > > >
> > > > > The data will be backed up nightly, so I'll probably use gstirpe to
> > > > > get the maximum capicty. RAID5 would not work very well with 3 x 500G
> > > > > (asuuming that I can't use the 500G that I put the system on).
> > > >
> > > > If that's really what you want to do then here are a couple more tips.
> > > > You can't boot from a gstripe volume, and when (not if) one of your
> > > > drives goes bad you'll be happier if you only lose your data and not
> > > > your entire OS. So plan to partition the drives and use gmirror for the
> > > > base OS (since you can boot from a gmirror volume). Make a relatively
> > > > small partition (10GB?) at the beginning of each drive. Make a gmirror
> > > > volume using two or three of them and install the OS to that volume.
> > > > Use the remaining one or two small partitions for swap or utility
> > > > partitions. Then make your giant gstripe volume out of the large
> > > > partitions on all four drives.
> > >
> > > Or better yet, make a gvinum RAID5 volume with the four large partitions.
> >
> > K, I think I'm convinced. That would give me 1.5TB for my 2TB of physical
> > disk.
> 
> Roughly speaking.
> 
> > Got a pointer to docs on how to install the base OS on a RAID5 config?
> 
> I'm not sure you can boot from a RAID5 volume, and it's tricky to boot from a 
> gvinum volume at all. I would still recommend partitioning and installing the 
> OS to a gmirror volume, and then set up your gvinum RAID5 after the fact.
> 
> Unfortunately, sysinstall doesn't grok advanced disk setups very well, so 
> you'll have to get started manually.  I would do this:


Thanks for all the sugestions, and the detailed guide on getting what we
setled on set up!!

-- 
U.S. Encouraged by Vietnam Vote - Officials Cite 83% Turnout Despite Vietcong Terror 
- New York Times 9/3/1967