linux-btrfs.vger.kernel.org archive mirror
 help / color / mirror / Atom feed
From: "B. S." <bs27975@gmail.com>
To: linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org
Subject: Pointers to mirroring partitions (w/ encryption?) help?
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2016 16:30:10 -0400	[thread overview]
Message-ID: <5751E8D2.7070001@gmail.com> (raw)

Hallo. I'm continuing on sinking in to btrfs, so pointers to concise 
help articles appreciated. I've got a couple new home systems, so 
perhaps it's time to investigate encryption, and given the bit rot I've 
seen here, perhaps time to mirror volumes so the wonderful btrfs 
self-healing facilities can be taken advantage of.

Problem with today's hard drives, a quick look at Canada Computer shows 
the smallest drives 500GB, 120GB SSDs, far more than the 20GB or so an 
OS needs. Yet not looking to put in a 2nd HD, either. It feels like 
mirroring volumes makes sense.

(EFI [partitions] also seem to be sticking their fingers in here.]

Assume a CD sized (680MB) /boot, and perhaps a 200MB (?) sized EFI 
partition, it seems to me one sets up / as usual (less complex install), 
then creates another partition for mirroring, later. IIUC, btrfs add 
device /dev/sda4 / is appropriate, then. Then running a balance seems 
recommended.

Confusing, however, is having those (both) partitions encrypted. Seems 
some work is needed beforehand. But I've never done encryption. I have 
come across https://github.com/gebi/keyctl_keyscript, so I understand 
there will be gotchas to deal with - later. But not there yet, and not 
real sure how to start.

The additional problem is most articles reference FDE (Full Disk 
Encryption) - but that doesn't seem to be prudent. e.g. Unencrypted 
/boot. So having problems finding concise links on the topics, -FDE 
-"Full Disk Encryption".

Any good links to concise instructions on building / establishing 
encrypted btrfs mirror volumes? dm_crypt seems to be the basis, and not 
looking to add LVM, seems an unnecessary extra layer of complexity.

It also feels like I could mkfs.btrfs /dev/sda3 /dev/sda4, then mirror 
subvolumes (or it inherently comes along for the ride?) - so my 
confusion level increases. Especially if encryption is added to the mix.

So, I could take an HD, create partitions as above (how? e.g. Set up 
encryption / btrfs mirror volumes), then clonezilla (?) partitions from 
a current machine in. I assume mounting a live cd then cp -a from old 
disk partition to new disk partition won't 'just work'. (?)

Article suggestions?

             reply	other threads:[~2016-06-03 20:30 UTC|newest]

Thread overview: 8+ messages / expand[flat|nested]  mbox.gz  Atom feed  top
2016-06-03 20:30 B. S. [this message]
2016-06-04  1:39 ` Pointers to mirroring partitions (w/ encryption?) help? Justin Brown
2016-06-04  5:33   ` B. S.
2016-06-04  7:46   ` Andrei Borzenkov
2016-06-04 17:31     ` B. S.
2016-06-04 21:14       ` Andrei Borzenkov
2016-06-04 19:05   ` Chris Murphy
2016-06-04 21:07     ` Andrei Borzenkov

Reply instructions:

You may reply publicly to this message via plain-text email
using any one of the following methods:

* Save the following mbox file, import it into your mail client,
  and reply-to-all from there: mbox

  Avoid top-posting and favor interleaved quoting:
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posting_style#Interleaved_style

* Reply using the --to, --cc, and --in-reply-to
  switches of git-send-email(1):

  git send-email \
    --in-reply-to=5751E8D2.7070001@gmail.com \
    --to=bs27975@gmail.com \
    --cc=linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org \
    /path/to/YOUR_REPLY

  https://kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-send-email.html

* If your mail client supports setting the In-Reply-To header
  via mailto: links, try the mailto: link
Be sure your reply has a Subject: header at the top and a blank line before the message body.
This is a public inbox, see mirroring instructions
for how to clone and mirror all data and code used for this inbox;
as well as URLs for NNTP newsgroup(s).