RAID1 with multiple partitions
I'm trying to use RAID 1 for the first time. I've gone ahead and set up
a system to test, using primarily these two guides:
http://mikeoverip.wordpress.com/2009/12/07/debian-5-lenny-step-by-step-installation-with-software-raid-1-with-screenshots/
http://dev.jerryweb.org/raid/
My system looks like this:
- Squeeze
- 2 drives
- 4 physical partitions for RAID on each disk, thus 4 MD arrays
( /boot, swap, /, /home )
/boot is EXT2,/ and /home are EXT3.
The system works, but I still have some questions about whether what
I've already done is OK.
1) Is it OK to use 4 MD arrays like this, or should I use just one and
LVM like the jerryweb link? I got a bit confused reading about LVM and
I don't need anything fancy like being able to resize partitions.
2) I put the SWAP partition on RAID. The first guide doesn't use RAID
for swap. The author emailed me his comments about the pros and cons,
and I think I want it on RAID for peace of mind. It shouldn't really
matter since I have much more RAM than I need. Is there any reason I
might regret putting SWAP on RAID? "cat /proc/mdstat" reports the MD1
(the swap device) as "auto-read-only".
3) The first guide doesn't use a separate boot partion, the second
does. Comments? I've never used a separate boot partition. I think it
used to be important on large disks, to keep the kernel in the first
1024 cylinders, but isn't important anymore.
4) The first guide shows how to install Grub on both disks. After
that's done once, do I have to do it again whenever there's a new kernel
package? Or in any other situation that I have to watch out for?
5) Besides question 4, is there any foreseeable problem that could leave
me with an unbootable system? Like, in the past have RAID systems
broken when upgraded from Etch to Lenny or Lenny to Squeeze?
6) I have lots of questions about disaster recovery, but can anyone
recommend something I should read about that so I don't have to bug you
with too many questions?
The installation went entirely smoothly. The initial sync of MD3
(/root) is happening now. It's taking much longer than the
installation. That surprises me, but if that's the biggest surprise I
got from my first attempt at RAID the beta2 installer must be pretty good.
David
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