[nylug-talk] How to set up Raid 1 on Ubuntu, Or Linux in gerneral

[Henning Follmann]

On Jun 1, 2007, at 7:56 AM, Chris Knadle wrote:

> On Thursday 31 May 2007, Carlos Alfaro wrote:
>> http://howtoforge.com/perfect_setup_ubuntu_5.10
>> this should be pretty similar to what you would do in ubuntu 7
>>
>> Question
>> how important is this setup?
>> I have to guess you are using at least windows 2000 server for ur  
>> site.
>> The reason I ask how important it is, you can invest under $100 in  
>> a TRUE
>> RAID Hardware card which can be used by both windows and linux.
>
>    The problem with "true hardware RAID" is that if anything goes  
> wrong with
> the RAID card, it's necessary to purchase an exact replacement to  
> get the
> RAID working again, and in between the RAID is a paperweight.  If  
> the card
> purchased is no longer available, well -- oops.  Also, many of the
> so-called "hardware" RAID cards are actually doing software RAID in  
> the
> driver, because it cheapens hardware manufacture costs.
>
>    Software RAID doesn't require proprietary drivers, and many  
> distros have
> options to set up RAID right from the install menu.  It can be a  
> bit more
> tricky if wanting to do something slightly out of the ordinary  
> [root RAID,
> setting up the boot loader to boot from a mirror drive, etc].   
> There are
> HOWTO documents available for setting it up.
>
>        http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/text/Software-RAID-HOWTO
>
>

And that's why you should either buy a decent controller (that is  
scsi) or stick with software raid.
I know the scsi option defeats the "i" in raid but in the long run it  
pays off to spend more on some hardware.
As a side effect you also get the longer MTBF of SCSI hard disks.

And I still think that root on a software raid is a bad idea. But I  
like to have two identical drives which are mirrored from time to time.
In a case of a failure you just swap the drives and boot back up.


Henning


-- 
Henning Follmann           | hfollmann at itcfollmann.com
it consultant              | www.itcfollmann.com