[mythtv-users] Should I use LVM on this new raid?

Jeff Stockett jeff at endlesstech.com
Sat Sep 22 03:34:50 UTC 2007


With 1TB drives - you definitely want to consider raid6 once you get to 4 or more drives - as the rebuilds with an array of drives that size can take a while under the best of circumstances.  For what the 9650SE-8LPML will cost you, you could buy 2+ more drives.  There are many mobos (ICH8R or ICH9R or NVidia NForce500 based) now with 6 SATA ports that work great using mdadm software raid and mdadm supports growing both raid5 and raid6.  I have a raid6 setup with 6 750GB drives, and get around 160MB/s writes and 180MB/s reads.  3ware boast 600+MB/s writes with the 9650, but that is with 24 drives connected.  3ware stuff is top notch, but probably over kill for what you are doing.  Also, unless you shell out another couple hundred for the battery backup unit, performance with that card will suffer.

As far as LVM goes, you can grow xfs with LVM, you just can't shrink it.  If you can live with that limitation or the delete speed limitation of ext3, LVM does provide a nice level of abstraction in case you change your mind on how to divvy things up down the road.  My two cents....


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