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Re: Install and RAID



>>>>> "Steve" == Steve Greenland <stevegr@debian.org> writes:

    Steve> Find new clients. Clients who won't you let you do the work
    Steve> they hired you to do aren't worth the trouble.

    Steve> More to the point, I'm not real comfortable about making
    Steve> the default install RAID capable, when (I'd guess) the
    Steve> majority of our users won't ever use it. It seems an
    Steve> unnecessary complication.

    Steve> Hmmm, what happens when I do a install with the RAID
    Steve> default, then rebuild the kernel without RAID
    Steve> support...does it still work? Or do I have to futz with the
    Steve> partition type? If the latter, I think making RAID the
    Steve> default would be a bad idea.

(I will assume RAID1 here; please correct me if I am wrong
on any details)

A superblock is recorded at the end of the device. This superblock
tells the kernel that this device is "mirror 0" of raid partition
"md2" (along with other information).

On initial boot, the kernel, if it is compiled with RAID support
will scan the superblock for all devices, and automatically
enable RAID support as required.

This is 100% transparent to the end user. No extra user level tools
are required, it just works (with a few more messages being displayed
and startup and shutdown).

If this is not good enough (I don't understand why), you can compile
the kernel without RAID support, and use the RAID1 partition as a
normal non-RAID partition.

    Steve> OTOH, I think making "RAID capable" a install-time setup
    Steve> option is a great idea, and off-hand (i.e. I have no real
    Steve> idea) doesn't seem like significantly more work.

Agreed.
-- 
Brian May <bam@debian.org>



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