From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Daniel Korstad" Subject: RE: Software based SATA RAID-5 expandable arrays? Date: Tue, 19 Jun 2007 13:49:14 -0500 Message-ID: <629734316.1182278954077.JavaMail.root@gateway.korstad.net> References: <335871.82002.qm@web54105.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Return-path: In-Reply-To: <335871.82002.qm@web54105.mail.re2.yahoo.com> Content-Disposition: inline Sender: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org To: Michael , Dexter Filmore Cc: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-raid.ids =20 I see nothing wrong with background info if it is relevant. I am alway= s interested in learning and not afraid to ask those green newbie quest= ions, I too was there. I might not be as green as I once was but I am = not an expert on everything, always learning and occasionally still ask= to green questions. If I never explored out of my comfort zone I won=E2= =80=99t continue to learn. Given I have time; I enjoy parting my exper= iences with others that have an interest. =20 I think this is a great forum I have received lots of answers and info = from both searching archives and asking directly. =20 If there are some ruffled feathers, I apologize, but I don't care to he= ar the bashing. Please don't cc the group; I would rather it be emails= just between the individuals with the concerns. =20 As for as looking for more information or answers, I think there are ma= ny in the group willing to help out. But if we don't know what is desi= red or a more direct question we may not know what response is desired.= It is not that the group is ignoring someone. =20 Now (rolling up sleeves...),=20 As for as the distro. You could ask 10 unix/linux guys and you would l= ikely get 10 different answers. There are heated debates on this all t= he time. I have played with a few, not all, so I can tell you what my = experiences are. Ubuntu is great for new Linux users. I have used thi= s for one of my laptops and have set it up for my folks. I originally = cut my teeth on RedHat long before Fedora was spun off from it. Curren= tly I run my home server with Fedora Core 4. The most recent version i= s Fedora 7 (they dropped the core part). Distro Watch http://distrowat= ch.com/ is a good place to look for more info on different versions. M= ost of them will have several forums that would be available to you if = you need to look for help unique to that distro. =20 To expand the array, you will need a recent kernel. RAID 5 reshape has= been out for some time. Any distro you chose that is current will pro= vide what you need. RAID6 reshape was recently added in 2.6.21. It wa= s release a few weeks ago. The latest stable is 2.6.21.5. This site h= as the vanilla kernel http://www.kernel.org/. =20 =20 When you pick a distro, they of course use the linux kernel but it is o= ften a cooked version, certain tweaks or patches applied that that dist= ro maintainers feel are appropriate to the users. Because of this, van= illa kernels are release prior to it being available to an update manag= er for that distro. Oh and update manager vary from between distros as= well. Taking a quick look on an update mirror for Fedora 7, I see ker= nel-2.6.21-1.3228.fc7.i586.rpm so if you did an install for Fedora 7 th= an did a yum update to freshen all the packages you will get the requir= ed kernel to support RAID 6 reshape as well. Other distros might have = the 2.6.21 available as well, if they don't, they will soon using their= update manager. So you should not need to do any kernel recompile for= a newer distro version. I had to because my version of Fedora is very= old and end of service. They are not releasing new updates for me. = That might be another item to consider, Fedora stops providing updates = for version that are 2 releases below the current one. So Fedora 7 is = the latest, 6 is still supported. When version 8 is released, 7 will b= e support and 6 will be dropped. Fedora has a rapid development timeta= ble, a couple releases a year. Other distros might (probably do) have = a longer life cycle. =20 =46or building your raid, there are lots of options and variations. I = can tell you some basic steps I used. =20 I use the available slots on my motherboard and added a couple PCI card= s to get me to a 10 disk array. You will have a newer system and using= PCI-express cards. As for a recommendation, I would have to defer tha= t to someone else. I have not upgraded my system to PCI-express yet. = Most of the cards with several SATA ports will have more features then = needed for software RAID. They have their own RAID which jacks up cost= and it is not needed. I too would be curious to hear what others are = using as I will need to update my system at some point. =20 =46or my RAID set, I made a partition on each of my sata drives. I tha= n marked them are type Linux Raid in the fdisk utility... Ummm what a m= in, here is a link I found from a google search the closely resembles t= he same steps I took years ago when I built the raid set I am using; =20 http://www.linuxhomenetworking.com/wiki/index.php/Quick_HOWTO_:_Ch26_:_= Linux_Software_RAID =20 =20 To reshape, add drives to your raid set in the future, you first add th= e new drive to the existing raid set. =20 mdadm --add /dev/md0 /dev/sdf1 =20 Next use the --grow switch to reshape it to the new number of drives yo= u want. The command below assumes you had 3 devices in the raid set be= fore you added sdf1 and now after you added sdf1 to be available to the= set, you want the raid-devices to be 4. Next time you add a device, i= t would be 5 ...=20 mdadm --grow /dev/md0 --raid-devices=3D4 =20 =20 The filesystem then needs to be expanded to fill up the new space, for = ext3 fsck.ext3 /dev/md0 resize2fs /dev/md0 =20 =46or XFS xfs_growfs /dev/md0 =20 Cheers, Dan. =20 ----- Original Message ----- =46rom: Michael=20 Sent: Tue, 6/19/2007 8:44am To: Dexter Filmore ; David Greaves ; Daniel Korstad=20 Cc: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Software based SATA RAID-5 expandable arrays?=20 =20 =20 Look at your sig... --=20 -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version: 3.12 GCS d--(+)@ s-:+ a- C++++ UL++ P+>++ L+++>++++ E-- W++ N o? K- w--(---) !O M+ V- PS+ PE Y++ PGP t++(---)@ 5 X+(++) R+(++) tv--(+)@=20 b++(+++) DI+++ D- G++ e* h>++ r* y? ------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------ http://www.stop1984.com http://www.againsttcpa.com You should get out more, maybe learn to interact with people. Its sad = that my post could effect you the way it did. You have Slinging ins= ults has done nothing to provide a solution to my build, and has distra= cted from the quality of this forum. Maybe someone can recommend a dif= ferent Linux Forum that is better moderated and/or not filled with a pe= rson so near sighted that I cant get a solution due to the fact that th= ings tend to deteriorate into flame wars. Dexter why must you focus on= information sharing as being negative. =20 Am I proud of my gaming/work machine... absolutely... Just like I'm pro= ud of my car and house. Did I share this info to brag to people on a R= AID Linux forum? Absolutely not... Thats what OCForums is for:) I pro= vided this information as to the reasons why I decided to build a separ= ate machine, and to provide information on what resources I have. A gr= eat example is the idea to pull my 550w PSU from my work horse and pla= ce it into my NAS machine. I also was hoping for someone to come up wi= th a unorthodox solution, that may save me money. =20 This forum doesn't seem to be a place for answers, though I really appr= eciate the instructions from Daniel Korstad on how to put the drives to= sleep. I have created a mail folder for such great responses. I have = yet to get info on what build and/or distro I should use. What command= s I need in Linux to build an array. What commands I need in Linux to = expand the array, and what type of RAID-5 setup linux option I should u= se to What SATA adapter cards I should use. Or any other ideas and s= uggestions. Thanks Dexter for providing an environment where such info is unobtaina= ble. GreenJelly PS The reason I use my Alias is the fact that their are socially inept= , super critical, highly judgmental individuals who see asking for help= , as begin a weakness. Or simply individuals who like to tear you down= because you don't do things like they feel should be done. =20 _______________________________________________________________________= _____________ Moody friends. Drama queens. Your life? Nope! - their life, your story.= Play Sims Stories at Yahoo! Games. http://sims.yahoo.com/ - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" i= n the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html