[mythtv-users] BE Disk / Filesystem Layout

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Tue Apr 17 15:38:27 UTC 2007


On Apr 17, 2007, at 9:16 AM, David Frascone wrote:

>
> I've read all the horror stories about the Raids.  I had been thinking
> I'd use LVM, and just add disks as I need them -- but that would  
> suffer
> the same 100% loss on any disk failure.
>
> Does Myth support using multiple filesystems for storing data?  I'm
> thinking that might be a way to mitigate loss if drive failure occurs.
> Something like:
>
> /myth/disk1
> /myth/disk2
> .
> .
> .
>
> Otherwise, I think LVM is probably the easiest solution -- but one  
> day,
> everything will be gone.
>
>
> And, the disk question:  I'm looking at segate barracude disks for
> roughly $.25/Gb on pricegrabber.com.  I like segate since they have  
> a 5
> year warranty.  I'm also thinking $50 for 200Gb disks sounds about  
> right
> -- When I need more space, drop in another 200Gb.
>
> Are there any glaring flaws in my plan?
>

Two that I can think of:

1:)	I'm not sure what the "horror stories" are that you refer to.  
Many people, including myself, have been using RAID for many years,  
both hardware and software, with no problems. Linux software RAID is  
very stable, has little overhead on modern machines and is easy to  
set up. I suspect whatever "horror stories" you have heard are  
related to improper setup or people expecting something that RAID is  
not designed to do (it does not, for example, eliminate the need to  
back up critical data).

2:) You plan for disks is OK if you have plenty of space to mount  
drives, power to run them and interface connections for them.  
Personally I won't buy a drive these days of less than 500GB capacity  
as smaller drives do not "earn their keep" in terms of the space and  
power they take up. You may pay more per GB initially, but it beats  
throwing away smaller drives as you run out of bays, or buying cases  
and power supplies just to run small drives.

Seagate's 5-year warranty is marketing, not engineering. IMHO the  
hassle of keeping the documentation and perhaps the packaging, paying  
for shipping, perhaps both ways, and going through the process of  
replacement. Seagate/Maxtor (they are the same Co. now) knows that  
the odds of someone actually getting a warranty replacement for a 5- 
year-old drive is close to nil. I'd rather pay more for a drive that  
won't fail on me in the first place, even if it has no warranty.

Ask the folks who do data recovery for a living what drives they  
never see in their shops - the answer will not be Seagate, though as  
with everything they can be OK for the price if you understand what  
you're getting.

Just my usual $0.02US :-)


Brian Wood
beww at beww.org





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