From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org ([208.92.234.80] helo=lists.gentoo.org) by finch.gentoo.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60) (envelope-from ) id 1Nxfaj-000618-97 for garchives@archives.gentoo.org; Fri, 02 Apr 2010 12:03:13 +0000 Received: from pigeon.gentoo.org (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with SMTP id BF203E06EE; Fri, 2 Apr 2010 12:02:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: from mail-gy0-f181.google.com (mail-gy0-f181.google.com [209.85.160.181]) by pigeon.gentoo.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9DB72E06EE for ; Fri, 2 Apr 2010 12:02:40 +0000 (UTC) Received: by gyg8 with SMTP id 8so859884gyg.40 for ; Fri, 02 Apr 2010 05:02:40 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:received:message-id:subject:from:to:content-type; bh=Qn8QbyM40QtQIuvA3uzZX6wajNc9qE0Gvt/uAL4IFlM=; b=ZybysnSkqn1NIlOtGsT7oUOUdL0xFj8V6mm4HUuzgwy6evyqKWxaWyxWK3TB0cB+OZ jnjah6FxcnPawZhlbCdN92BxDGBAxXygCnKITP9pBYSLFEEucI8qtc1QObkEH6HRleHe XySYyM1Kk15F6wiJ0S67J5Usgr653xuHG0Ju4= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :content-type; b=ifEvS0fPKYBJQbSvskDPqFXauvtz0taX5/6dvdK7pq+8hTABlFMxuikvWdOrhPrhMe JBlAZrTmX8Ntmjhzd53CURIG+bFFJSxmd2InytF1o65T5/SJd58WIuJ0mm1rX9nAUU8G T0zmcD8LE5hokMXkvc94GcG9SQv7ZCkK8wcto= Precedence: bulk List-Post: List-Help: List-Unsubscribe: List-Subscribe: List-Id: Gentoo Linux mail X-BeenThere: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Reply-to: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.100.196.7 with HTTP; Fri, 2 Apr 2010 05:02:39 -0700 (PDT) In-Reply-To: References: <20100401224820.GA5637@syscon4.inet> <20100402014000.GD5637@syscon4.inet> Date: Fri, 2 Apr 2010 08:02:39 -0400 Received: by 10.101.121.19 with SMTP id y19mr4823334anm.103.1270209759928; Fri, 02 Apr 2010 05:02:39 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Duplicate identical Hard Disk From: Dan Cowsill To: gentoo-user@lists.gentoo.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 X-Archives-Salt: 1165742f-44e8-4d98-88f5-50a6b79ce4d8 X-Archives-Hash: cc22ea75ba443ff7fb82d47da9b25c65 On Thu, Apr 1, 2010 at 10:09 PM, Mark Knecht wrote: > > With only 2 disks I personally think you're on the right path. With 3 > disks I'm personally planning on RAID1 using 3 copies. > ... > My comment about RAID was that I am learning the hard (alas expensive) > way that not all disks can actually do RAID, at least not Linux > software RAID, and really be usable. > > >From what I understand of software RAID in linux, it works on block devices, not disks. This means if some endeavoring soul was brave enough to RAID even partitions on a device, it would work as normal. Perhaps you mean that not all properly functioning disks can do RAID? What sort of trouble are you running into? I've successfully deployed both RAID1 and RAID5 on my home media server for quite some time now. While the initial time investment in reading documentation was considerable, since that time I've had no cause for trouble. I keep smartmontools looking at the array member disks and regularly read through monthly smart reports of my drives. Also, if you have three disks, why not go for RAID5? It is much quicker and I believe you'll end up with more space. It is a bit of a pain to get mdadm to convert your RAID1 to a RAID5, but it is doable. DC