LVM over RAID

["Pete Clarke" <pete@dynotechnic.co.uk>]

Hi gurus...

I have a question regarding LVM and RAID.

I have a 324gb and 350gb RAID enclosure, the 324gb consists of 9 x 36gb
discs, and the other is 7 x 50gb discs.
This space is destined for a file server, and usually I would just use
appropriate RAID level to define the volumes etc.
However, after being caught out with needing more space in the past I
decided to go the LVM route, what I need to know now is how best to go about
it...Do I:

Just treat each drive as a seperate device (i.e JBOD) and create a PV for
each disc and use software striping where necessary, or define each array as
one big RAID 0 (backup is taken care of) and create lots of little
partitions to use as PV's?

I guess the second route would be the best bet, as it would use the benefit
of hardware RAID 0 with smaller partitions. But would this cause issues by
having potentially *lots* of partitions spread over the disc (the howto
advises against using the partitions for PV's but rather to use whole
devices (discs /dev/sdxx etc.)).

I am basically looking for the solution that provides the best balance
between performance (speed is really an issue) and flexibility.

I have checked Google and the various howto's but they don't really touch on
this scenario...


Cheers,



Pete.