Re: Installing debian on N2100
Andrew Haswell wrote:
I didnt mean to suggest that i wouldnt use the box. As i mentioned
before im pretty new to linux coming from a windows backgroung so hope
to pick up some skill using this as my home server because vmware is a
pain.
I just need to get it installed so i can start playing, if you think
there is value in breaking off more of the partitions i will, i have to
say that i wont be letting people i dont know on immediately because you
all know far more than i do about linux so i need to get up to speed
before im sure i can secure my data, after all it houses my photos etc.
I was hoping to use LVM and therefore learn it. Has anyone used LVM on
the n2100 for the root, swap, etc partitions? As i understand it with
boot in flash it should be a problem to use it.
if i understand correctly you can do lvm on raid but not raid on lvm at
the moment. what i would like to do would be have a section of disk lvm
raid1 containing debian and my protected storage partitions, that way i
can move disk from data to debian later if required. and an lvm r0 mass
storage for nonessential data. I was kind of hoping you could do raid on
lvm so that i could break the whole disk into 50gb chunks and then move
them between differnt LVMs as required but i dont think you can.
I'm not sure quite what you're asking here, but I'd make a couple of points.
Firstly, I wouldn't bother even attempting to preserve any of your
existing partitions on the HDDs during the installation. No doubt it
could be done but you'll be giving yourself much pain for very little
gain. Take this opportunity to start with a clean slate and plan your
disc usage. If needs be, buy an extra USB HDD and copy all your
existing data off onto that before you start. You don't say how much
data you have, but they are very reasonably priced these days.
Secondly, I'm not quite sure what you'd achieve with RAID on top of LVM,
but it doesn't sound nice and it's possibly a little muddled. From your
latest posting it sounds like you also want to use RAID0 to give you
more space at the expense of security. Again, this is possible, but ask
yourself whether you really need that much space.
Assuming the answer is yes, then how about this as a plan?
Create a 10G partition on each disc. Combine with RAID1. Use as /.
Create a 1G partition on each disc. Combine with RAID1. Use as swap.
Create, say, a 100G partition on each disc. Combine with RAID1. Use as
physical volume for LVM.
Create, say, a 100G partition on each disc. Comibe with RAID0. Use as
a physical volume for LVM.
Then create two volume groups (called maybe RAID1STUFF and RAID0STUFF)
and create logical volumes as required in these volume groups. Logical
volumes created in the former VG will be stored on RAID1 chunks, whilst
those in the latter VG will be stored on RAID0 chunks. Obviously the
initial size of the first VG will be 100G whilst the initial size of the
second VG will be 200G.
This will then leave you about 280G of each disc unused. As required
you can allocate chunks of this (perhaps 50G at a time as you suggest),
combine the chunks with RAID1 or RAID0, create Physical Volumes on them
and add them to the corresponding VG. That way you can grow each of the
VGs as required.
To allow for the creation of future partitions, create the first two
partitions (10G and 1G) as primary partitions, then use the rest of each
disc to create a (forgotten the name - container for logical partitions)
and create the 100G partitions mentioned earlier as logical partitions
within this container.
It's all a bit too complicated for my taste, but I think it does what
you've been asking for.
In answer to your question about "has anyone used" - yes, I use LVM on
my N2100, although not for the root partition. There's no reason why it
wouldn't work, although there seems little point - you'd have to take
the discs out of the machine if you wanted to re-size the root partition
at a later date.
HTH
John
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