Q: RAID-1 w/2x160GB, ReiserFS, Debian "woody", homebrew 2.4.25 kernel

[Jens Benecke <jens@spamfreemail.de>]

Hi everybody,

I'm planning to set up a new RAID mirrored system with the above specs. Both
disks are master (hda and hdc). I'm currently trying to decide between LVM2
(is it in 2.4 already?), MD, and a "manual" nightly rsync onto the second
disk.

I'd like a few pointers (RTFwhatever welcome) to the following questions:


How about RAIDing the root partition? If one drive fails will the other be
able to boot via LILO? How about GRUB? Which do you prefer?

How about (/var)/tmp? I (suppose I'll) need it on both disks, does it make
sense to mirror it as well?

Can I mirror the whole disk? Or do I need to mirror each partition
seperately?

Does MD or LVM2 do hot sync, i.e. if one drive fails will I be able to stick
in a replacement, and stop worrying? Or do I need to repartition the new
disk exactly as the old one, before being able to sync?

How does LVM2/MD deal with failing harddisks, which is why I do the mirror
at all? I've heard about MD not detecting read errors because the "other"
disk was reading fine, and crashing completely when one disk was finally
replaced because the data on the other disk was also corrupt. Is that still
the current case?


The goal is to have as "stress free" a system as possible - i.e. with as
little manual configuration, and in event of emergencies, as little work to
do, as possible.


Thank you for your help!


-- 
Jens Benecke
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