[ale] Looking for recommendations on LVM + soft Raid on home server

[leamhall at gmail.com (Leam Hall)]

On 03/19/2012 10:35 PM, Neal Rhodes wrote:
> I'm getting ready for the 3rd time installing Centos 6.2 on new server
> for home.   We usually figure we get to install at least twice on a new
> OS and hardware.
>
> This time the re-install is to get the drive partitioning and soft RAID
> right.    I didn't have the 2nd drive for the 2nd install.
>
> Normally our prior Fedora servers have been
>
>          /dev/md1 on / type ext3 (rw)
>          /dev/md0 on /boot type ext3 (rw)
>          /dev/md2 on /u type ext3 (rw)
>
>
> This time around I was thinking on using LVM, I guess to just get more
> experience with LVM.   However, since you wouldn't want to risk
> resizing /boot or root filesystem,  I see no point in them being in
> LVM.
>
> Primary drive is 1.5TB, of which 220GB is occupied by Windows7 boot,
> which I'd prefer to not disturb.
> 2nd drive is 1TB.
>
> So, I'm thinking of a layout like this:
>
>          /dev/md0 on /boot type ext3 (rw)   (whatever boot takes)
>          /dev/md1 on / type ext3 (rw)          (about 50GB)
>          /dev/md2 on VolumeGroup00         (about 1TB)
>                    And logical volumes for /home and /u, which can be
>          resized as needed between /home and /u
>          /dev/sda? on /u2                              (remaining 300GB,
>          not Raid 1, just on the one bigger drive)
>
>
> Is that going to work?   Other thoughts?
>
> Neal Rhodes
> MNOP Ltd

Morning Neil!

If you're looking to learn, then life becomes a lot more fun! Some 
things to consider might be adding a swap space partition and separating 
/var, /usr, and /home from root (which you have done partly). Swap is a 
separate partition at the BIOS level though you can add swap volumes 
later under LVM. However, I prefer a swap partition because if the 
machine needs to swap then adding overhead for LVM seems against the grain.

With /home separate you can just tar it up for archive, move it off the 
machine, and then restore it back once you rebuild. I've been doing this 
for years and still have files from 10 years ago even though a few of my 
machines have crashed.

Moving /var and /usr off root helps because they tend to grow a lot. 
That lets you move things around easier though it's a bit trickier than 
/home.

What are you using /u for?

Leam