[rescue] Re: [SunHELP] Small RAID array setup

[Phil Stracchino]

On Thu, Jun 26, 2003 at 02:31:29PM -0400, C. Magnus Hedemark wrote:
> On Thursday, June 26, 2003, at 01:23 PM, Phil Stracchino wrote:
> 
> >After some thought, I think I'd do this:  Set up a small boot partition
> >on the internal disk.  Install onto it, then establish a multi-way
> >mirror across the remaining disks.  RAID5 the remaining space on all
> >five disks.
> 
> Normally RAID doesn't work on the partition level but on the drive 
> level.

This is true of hardware RAID, but not of software RAID.  Since we're
talking a SparcClassic and Solaris 9, I assume we're talking Solstice
DiskSuite, which is software RAID and works at the partition level, not
the drive level.

> That said, you could RAID 5 on three of the drives (minimum) and RAID 1 
> on two drives (min & max... your only option).  I think Disk Suite lets 
> you do mirroring and such at the partition level but I go out of my way 
> not to use it (so terribly slow and a pain in the ass to maintain 
> compared to even a marginal hardware RAID)

Actually, on most modern machines, software RAID will outperform most
hardware RAID controllers I've seen.  Look at a typical hardware RAID
controller, and the odds are it has something on the lines of an
iAPX80186 on it.  Granted, a SparcClassic isn't the fastest processor
out there (it's, what, a 50MHz sun4m?), but since by Shel's own
statement of the problem he doesn't have the budget for hardware RAID,
DiskSuite is what's available for him to work with.

Personally, I use DiskSuite all the time and I find it requires
virtually zero maintenance.


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