[svlug] Help connecting 60 Gig Raid Array

[Ben Spade]

Thanks to Alvin, Richard, Ira, and everyone else who replied.

A little more detail about the system and its purpose in life. The raid
array was built for us by Tatung, who provided a case and Infotrend IFT-3102U
RAID controller. We then added nine of our own disk drives, (9 Gig ATLAS III,
I beleve - there are some advantages to working for a disk company). We wanted
it to be attached to a computer with 100Tx Ethernet, and had a selection of
Sparc computers (fairly old ones) to work with. But, adding an UltraWide
SCSI controller and high speed Ethernet to an old computer seems to be a
rather frustrating project, and it wasn't me that suggested moving it to a
Linux computer (we are making some progress in the mindshare area).

The storage space will be used for tools, all of those CDs one gets from
companies like Cadence or Synopsys, so in case of catastrophy, we could
simply re-install. Backups will be done to a DLT4700 tape jukebox - each
tape holds 20MB (40 compressed), so 2 or 3 partitions should be about right, 
and most of the time the array will be mounted read-only.

One advantage of the IFT-3102U controller is that it is managed via RS232, so
it is OS indipendent. It can divide the physical array into logical units,
each of which can be Raid 0, 1, 3, 5, or JBOD (just a bunch of drives).

So - more questions:
One of you suggested that partitions be no larger than the backup device.
OK, should I treat the array as one huge logical unit, and partition it
the way we normally do, or should I break the array into multiple LUNs
(which would allow me more partitions, but the multiple LUNs will confuse
me, if not Linux).

Do I gain enough from a 2.1 kernel to be worth getting on the development
roller coaster? How much trouble is it take SuSE 5.3 from the 'stable' 
world into the 'development' world? (I installed SuSE because someone had
borrowed the Redhat 5.1 CDs, and also to learn about another distribution.
We currently have Slackware, RedHat, and SuSE systems here - any comments?)

About the IFT controller - anyone have any experience with them? What are
the alternatives if this works well enough that management wants to do it
again?  Alvin mentioned the BT958 - we want to support the Buslogic folks
(whatever they are called today), how does one manage the BT958? A card
seems less versatile than a stand alone array, too.

Thanks for your help

	Ben

> On 9 Nov 1998 15:41:14 -0800, Ben Spade <spade at spade.com> wrote:
> >
> >So my question is, how to best use it? Can I create a 60Gig ext2 file
> >system? Do I need to partition it smaller - if so, how much smaller?
> 
> The answer is yes you can. As a matter of fact, bigger partitions have
> already been created with ext2.
> Pitfalls:
> - If your partition gets hosed you lose 60G of data
> - If you have to fsck, you can go for lunch and come back.
> 
> If you  are using  a recent  2.1 kernel,  you should  also enable  the spare
> superblock option (to waste less space with superblocks all over your disk)
> 
> Marc
> 
> PS: Of course, on 32 bit architectures, you're still limited to 2G for files
> -- 
> "Microsoft is to software what McDonalds is to gourmet cooking"
>  
> Home page: http://marc.merlins.org/ (friendly to non IE browsers)
> Finger marc at merlins.org for PGP key and other contact information
> 
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-- 
    Ben Spade                   President, Silicon Valley Linux User's Group
  spade at spade.com                              spade at svlug.org
http://www.spade.com/                        http://www.svlug.org/
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