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Re: Desktop user: Etch or the next testing?



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Douglas Allan Tutty wrote:
>> 4) Say I have 2 physical disks. Now I can put important data on disk 1
>> and put the backups of those important data on disk 2. In this way I
>> have two copies of important data on different physical devices (Only
>> some (not many) of my data are /important/.) Can I do similar using LVM?
> 
> Here's how I do it.  I have two 80 GB drives.  Each is partitioned
> identically with three partitions:
> 
> 	1.	64 MB	Used for raid1, makes md0, JFS, /boot
> 		since grub can't read LVMs
> 
> 	2.	16 GB	Used for raid1, makes md1.  This one block 
> 		device is the physical volume for volume group 'system'.
> 		Since I put the current backup in /var/local (see below), size this
> 		to hold the debian system plus the size of your backup
> 		set, unless you're using streaming tape or other
> 		direct-to-off-the-box backup setup.
> 	
> 	3.	remainder (64 GB), each used for PVs for volume group
> 		'local'.
> 
> VG 'system' is broken up into LVs:
> 	
> 	root	300 MB, JFS, mounted on /
> 	usr	4 GB, JFS, /usr
> 	var	6 GB, JFS, /var
> 	swap	1 GB.  Yes swap is on LV on raid1.
> 
> /tmp is on tmpfs
> 
> This way, one drive failure doesn't cause the system to crash since even
> swap is protected by raid1.
> 
> VG 'local' right now only has one LV:
> 	home	12 GB, JFS, /home.
> 		This is just straight LVM, I can add a drive (PV) to VG
> 		local and extend /home anytime.
> 
> When I get into video editing, I'll likely create a stripped LV and
> mount it somewhere, make it sticky like /tmp so user's can use it.
> 
> /home isn't protected by raid, so one drive failing will cause data
> loss (or at least trash the fs).  So I run backups and store them
> initialy on /var/local/backup, which is protected by raid1.  I also
> rsync it over to my 486.
> 			

I see. You put /home on a separate VG and have your backup protected
with RAID. RAID is also an advanced topic.

> Before I started working too much on my etch box, I played with the
> drives.  I disconnected one to see how it gets handled and learn how to
> put it back.  Its just like in the HOWTO.  Note, I didn't hot-unplug the
> drive since the linux kernel doesn't support hotswap on SATA (or IDE).
> mdadm emails you to tell you a drive failed.
> 
>> 5) Is there an easy and supported way to convert my current disks (and
>> data on the disks) to LVM?
>  
> AFAIK, its like wanting to change your current drives to a new
> filesystem: its a bit of a shell game.  You can probably do it, but
> personally, doing things like that is the only time I ever do a
> reinstall and take the opportunity to to do it.  Given the ease of
> Etch's installer, its probably the easiest way.
> 
You mean Etch's installer have a direct support of LVM in the
installation process? I did not note that before.


- --
Cheers,

Wei Chen
http://www.acplex.com/people/wchen/
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