Note: "permalinks" may not be as permanent as we would like,
direct links of old sources may well be a few messages off.
OK it's a bit cheeky posting these kinds of questions to the list when the guys at linbit offer consultancy, but since they haven't replied to my contact and I'm an impatient man, here goes ;) (PS linbit - I still want consultancy ;) get in touch when you can) We are building two storage boxes - each of which has 2 x 73GB SAS 15K spindles and 22 x 1TB SAS 7200 spindles (SATA disks with a SAS interface). The RAID cards we use are very good and we are intending to configure the 22 spindles in a RAID-10 for optimum performance and redundancy. (The other 2 disks a simple mirror) The operating system and metadata will live on the mirror, the 11TB array is to be used for data storage. We plan on using around 8 separate filesystems, starting small and growing over time as I don't think an 11TB filesystem is a good idea ;) So - LVM is required. Plan A ------ Take the 11TB array (/dev/sdb) and create a single partition on it. Use drbd to replicate /dev/sdb1 onto the second node. Create a single VolumeGroup from /dev/drbd0. Create 8 LogicalVolumes from the VolumeGroup Format each LogVol with reiserfs Advantages : + single drbd resource (simple config) + single drbd metadata + no need to ever grow drbd resource; ..to grow, just increase LVM and grow fs. Disadvantages : + eggs in one basket? Failure of drbd leaves us with no data, complete restore required. + would growing LVM and fs be slow ? Plan B ------ Take the 11TB array (/dev/sdb) and create a single partition on it. Create a single VolumeGroup from /dev/sdb1. Create 8 LogicalVolumes from the VolumeGroup Use drbd to replicate each LogVol onto the second node. Format each /dev/drbd[x] with reiserfs Advantages : + if drbd were to corrupt or suffer issue, perhaps that issue would be limited to one partition ? Disadvantages : + Complex drbd configuration + 8 sets of metadata + Growth requires resize of LogVol, drbd and filesystem If anyone has any views, I'm all ears :) TIA. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email may contain legally privileged and/or confidential information. It is solely for and is confidential for use by the addressee. Unauthorised recipients must preserve, observe and respect this confidentiality. If you have received it in error please notify us and delete it from your computer. Do not discuss, distribute or otherwise copy it. Unless expressly stated to the contrary this e-mail is not intended to, and shall not, have any contractually binding effect on the Company and its clients. We accept no liability for any reliance placed on this e-mail other than to the intended recipient. If the content is not about the business of this Company or its clients then the message is neither from nor sanctioned by the Company. We accept no liability or responsibility for any changes made to this e-mail after it was sent or any viruses transmitted through this e-mail or any attachment. It is your responsibility to satisfy yourself that this e-mail or any attachment is free from viruses and can be opened without harm to your systems.