[mythtv-users] New Myth setup - questions about storage.

[match at ece.utah.edu]

On 28 Dec 2009 at 19:13, John Drescher wrote:

> On Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 7:09 PM, Johnny <jarpublic at gmail.com> wrote:
> >> My backend runs 6  750GB SATA drives for storage, configued as 3  1.5TB raid
> >> 0 arrays, since I'm most concerned with maximizing storage space. I have run
> >
> > This doesn't make any since to me. Mythtv doesn't need the extra
> > throughput, and with storage groups you still get all the storage
> > space. So by running RAID0 all you have gained is double the
> > likelihood of loosing your recordings.
> >
> I Agree. With mythtv there is no good reason for using raid 0. I was
> just typing the same when gmail told me that someone added a message
> to the thread.
> 
> I would also add that using LVM to connect a bunch of non raid drives
> together is also not a good thing to do. There is no need for
> everything to be in 1 filesystem. Much better to let mythtv handle
> this with storage groups.
> 
> John

Yes, of course RAID 0 serves little purpose here. The configuration is left 
over from years ago, when this backend machine doubled as my main 
network server, and before storage groups. Not even sure it was "needed" 
then, but it cost nothing and seemed the best way to create what was at the 
time 3 huge filesystems, which was beneficial before storage groups. The 
choices were software RAID, hardware RAID, or LVM. I chose software 
RAID because it was free and I had some history with it (old habits die hard), 
and because I never really trusted LVM for no real reason. LVM always felt 
like a hack to me.

Anyway, all tasks except MythTV moved to another server years ago. I just 
upgraded this backend from MythBuntu 9.04/0.21 to MythBuntu 9.10/0.22 a 
couple of months ago and since this was an upgrade of software only, I 
didn't bother to change the drive configuration. If the upgrade had failed, I 
likely would have.

I included the reference to using my disks in 3 RAID 0 arrays in my response 
because the original poster was considering a RAID 5 array and mixing IDE 
and SATA drives and asked "Will this work?" Even though my arrays are 
RAID 0, I felt that my success story would help to answer his questions.

Yes it will work, if you use reasonable hardware. Wether or not it's the best 
configuration is a different question.   :-)

Marvin