In our small business, we have to hold onto gigs of data. And sadly,
disgustingly, we don't have any good backup (periodic DVD burning when
we can) and the PC holding the info just has a couple of ATA HD's.

We're needing to put together a file server, and I'm looking into mobos
that handle RAID 10. From what I can see, that's the best balance of
efficiency and performance even with the 50% size usage.

Here're my questions:
I am finding it hard to find info on how the RAID is managed and if a
drive fails, how to replace it and rebuild the array. Some info I
REALLY need to know before I set one up. =)
I've found lots of info about what an array does but no real meat on
managing an array.
Any pointers of where I can go to find actual how-to's would be
appreciated.

I'm pretty comfortable with Fedora Core. But, I'm also looking into
Slackware since a lot I've found indicates it's a bit (or a lot) more
stable, secure, and tested.
So, does the OS handle array management, or software apart from the OS?
(When I installed a SATA on my own PC I had to install some HD software
that loads up before the OS does.
So does picking the OS matter too much when considering RAID?

And, how hard is it to replace a RAIDed drive?
If I have a RAID 10 and a drive goes bad, is it as easy as replacing
the drive and selecting something in a program that "rebuilds the
array"?
(How would I know a drive's gone bad anyway? Does the RAID do a
constant parity check and whatnot and let me know of abnormalities? Or
do I have to run an FSCK or something now and then?

Thanks for any feedback and information!
-Liam

In comp.os.linux.hardware news@celticbear.com <news@celticbear.com>:
> In our small business, we have to hold onto gigs of data. And sadly,
> disgustingly, we don't have any good backup (periodic DVD burning when
> we can) and the PC holding the info just has a couple of ATA HD's.

USB2 cases and large IDE hds are cheap enough for backup
purposes.

[..]

> Here're my questions:
> I am finding it hard to find info on how the RAID is managed and if a
> drive fails, how to replace it and rebuild the array. Some info I
> REALLY need to know before I set one up. =)

All this is explained (software raid howto - www.tldp.org)

[..]

--
Michael Heiming (X-PGP-Sig > GPG-Key ID: EDD27B94)
mail: echo zvpunry@urvzvat.qr | perl -pe 'y/a-z/n-za-m/'
#bofh excuse 209: Only people with names beginning with 'A'
are getting mail this week (a la Microsoft)

news@celticbear.com wrote:

> In our small business, we have to hold onto gigs of data. And sadly,
> disgustingly, we don't have any good backup (periodic DVD burning when
> we can) and the PC holding the info just has a couple of ATA HD's.
>
> We're needing to put together a file server, and I'm looking into mobos
> that handle RAID 10. From what I can see, that's the best balance of
> efficiency and performance even with the 50% size usage.
>
> Here're my questions:
> I am finding it hard to find info on how the RAID is managed and if a
> drive fails, how to replace it and rebuild the array. Some info I
> REALLY need to know before I set one up. =)
> I've found lots of info about what an array does but no real meat on
> managing an array.
> Any pointers of where I can go to find actual how-to's would be
> appreciated.
>
> I'm pretty comfortable with Fedora Core. But, I'm also looking into
> Slackware since a lot I've found indicates it's a bit (or a lot) more
> stable, secure, and tested.
> So, does the OS handle array management, or software apart from the OS?
> (When I installed a SATA on my own PC I had to install some HD software
> that loads up before the OS does.
> So does picking the OS matter too much when considering RAID?
>
> And, how hard is it to replace a RAIDed drive?
> If I have a RAID 10 and a drive goes bad, is it as easy as replacing
> the drive and selecting something in a program that "rebuilds the
> array"?
> (How would I know a drive's gone bad anyway? Does the RAID do a
> constant parity check and whatnot and let me know of abnormalities? Or
> do I have to run an FSCK or something now and then?
>
> Thanks for any feedback and information!
> -Liam
>
If your data is important enough to you to consider a RAID you should
already have everything on UPS's. Power quality problems wipe out more
data than anything else.
--
JosephKK
Gegen dummheit kampfen die Gotter Selbst, vergebens.
--Schiller

Joseph2k <joseph2k@lanset.com> writes:

> If your data is important enough to you to consider a RAID you should
> already have everything on UPS's. Power quality problems wipe out more
> data than anything else.

That depends a lot on where you are geographically. In the last five
years or so, I can only remember one power outage, which fortunately
didn't cause me any damage. During the same time, I have had two hard
drives fail.

This is all in Europe. I hear the power loss is actually a recurring
thing on the other side of pond. It's a bit curious that electricity
is both cheaper and more reliable here.

--
Måns Rullgård
mru@inprovide.com

Måns Rullgård writes:
> This is all in Europe. I hear the power loss is actually a recurring
> thing on the other side of pond.

Some places is, some it isn't.

> It's a bit curious that electricity is both cheaper and more reliable
> here.

Everywhere in Europe?
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA

John Hasler wrote:
> Måns Rullgård writes:
>
>>This is all in Europe. I hear the power loss is actually a recurring
>>thing on the other side of pond.
>
>
> Some places is, some it isn't.
>
>
>>It's a bit curious that electricity is both cheaper and more reliable
>>here.
>
>
> Everywhere in Europe?

At least in the Nordic countries.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

Måns Rullgård writes:
> It's a bit curious that electricity is both cheaper and more reliable
> here.

I wrote:
> Everywhere in Europe?

Tauno Voipio writes:
> At least in the Nordic countries.

So you've checked out the price and reliability of power everywhere in the
US? Quite a project.
--
John Hasler
john@dhh.gt.org
Dancing Horse Hill
Elmwood, WI USA

John Hasler wrote:
> Måns Rullgård writes:
>
>>It's a bit curious that electricity is both cheaper and more reliable
>>here.
>
>
> I wrote:
>
>>Everywhere in Europe?
>
>
> Tauno Voipio writes:
>
>>At least in the Nordic countries.
>
>
> So you've checked out the price and reliability of power everywhere in the
> US? Quite a project.


Average is enough for me. A different story is that
the reasonably priced electricity may be soon past.

If you look at the power pole forest typical of an
US residential area, and compare it to the way it's
handled here, you'll pretty soon see why there is a
difference in reliability.

--

Tauno Voipio
tauno voipio (at) iki fi

On Sun, 02 Apr 2006 16:13:27 GMT, Tauno Voipio <tauno.voipio@INVALIDiki.fi> wrote:


>John Hasler wrote:
>> Måns Rullgård writes:
>>
>>>It's a bit curious that electricity is both cheaper and more reliable
>>>here.
>>
>>
>> I wrote:
>>
>>>Everywhere in Europe?
>>
>>
>> Tauno Voipio writes:
>>
>>>At least in the Nordic countries.
>>
>>
>> So you've checked out the price and reliability of power everywhere in the
>> US? Quite a project.


>Average is enough for me. A different story is that
>the reasonably priced electricity may be soon past.

>If you look at the power pole forest typical of an
>US residential area, and compare it to the way it's
>handled here, you'll pretty soon see why there is a
>difference in reliability.

That's amazing how you've been everywhere in the us and everywhere in europe.

Except for denver's thunderstorm season, I haven't been in a blackout in eleven
years being in CT, CO, MA, CO, NM, and AZ.

Sounds to me like you get your data from the tv news and can't fathom that
they only report unusual events. Somehow you think the entire U.S. is
california in '02.

Tauno Voipio wrote:

> John Hasler wrote:
>> Måns Rullgård writes:
>>
>>>It's a bit curious that electricity is both cheaper and more reliable
>>>here.
>>
>>
>> I wrote:
>>
>>>Everywhere in Europe?
>>
>>
>> Tauno Voipio writes:
>>
>>>At least in the Nordic countries.
>>
>>
>> So you've checked out the price and reliability of power everywhere in
>> the
>> US? Quite a project.
>
>
> Average is enough for me. A different story is that
> the reasonably priced electricity may be soon past.
>
> If you look at the power pole forest typical of an
> US residential area, and compare it to the way it's
> handled here, you'll pretty soon see why there is a
> difference in reliability.

What's different there? No "power pole forest" in my neighborhood, but that
doesn't mean the power is reliable--every time a raccoon commits suicide in
the cable tunnel the lights blink or go out. No different from other
places I've lived except that when the lines are on poles it's the
squirrels that fry.

--
--John
to email, dial "usenet" and validate
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)