Topic: Installation on hard drives of different sizes

[zadeet]

Hi guys

A question regarding the installation of SME 7.4:

I have a client whom I've converted from Windows Server 2003, and he has agreed to try out a Linux server so long is it is as easy to manage as Windows. Obviously SME fits this bill. The clients server hardware has a mix match of IDE and SATA drives, namely 160GB IDE; 320GB SATA; 250GB IDE.

I have always built SME servers using RAID and disks of identical capacity/interface eg: 2X 250Gb SATA.

In the situation mentioned above, how would I install SME server so that all three disks are used, and is that at all possible? Is using LVM supported?

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Regards

Craig

[cactus]

In the situation mentioned above, how would I install SME server so that all three disks are used, and is that at all possible?

Use the boot option noraid during install time when booting from the installation CD.

Is using LVM supported?

I believe so as we have the option nolvm for that.

For more options and some minor explanation see: http://wiki.contribs.org/Booting

[Stefano]

In the situation mentioned above, how would I install SME server so that all three disks are used, and is that at all possible?

Hi

my suggestion is to setup SME with all the hds connected and with the "nospare" (check the syntax) option..

in this case you should have a 3 disks RAID 5 array with about 320 GB of space..

let's say:

160 GB hd is A
250 GB hd is B
320 GB hd is C

in the above mentioned scenario, A will be fully used, while B and C will have some unpartitioned space (about 90 GB for B and about 160 GB for C)

with the unpartitioned space you can create an RAID1 array of... 80 GB and then move /var to it

at the end you'll have almost 320 Gb for your i-bays and user's home dir, with the security that all the partitions are in raid

a bit complicated, but interesting, isn't it?

naturally you can avoid the second array..

my 2c

Stefano

[zadeet]

Hi Guys

THANK YOU for your help - much appreciated. This clears things up quite a bit for me. What always surprises me , coming from a Windoze background, is just how flexible Linux is, and what is even more surprising is just how eager people such as yourselves are to help out noobs such as me!! Thanks Again..

Craig..

[Stefano]

Hi Guys
THANK YOU for your help..

you are welcome..

please take some time to read carefully the documentation and, if you can, please make a donation

thank you in advance

Stefano

[Boris]

Hi

my suggestion is to setup SME with all the hds connected and with the "nospare" (check the syntax) option..

in this case you should have a 3 disks RAID 5 array with about 320 GB of space..

let's say:

160 GB hd is A
250 GB hd is B
320 GB hd is C

in the above mentioned scenario, A will be fully used, while B and C will have some unpartitioned space (about 90 GB for B and about 160 GB for C)

with the unpartitioned space you can create an RAID1 array of... 80 GB and then move /var to it

at the end you'll have almost 320 Gb for your i-bays and user's home dir, with the security that all the partitions are in raid

a bit complicated, but interesting, isn't it?

naturally you can avoid the second array..

my 2c

Stefano

Can remaining 80GB be used as non-redundant /tmp?

[CharlieBrady]

Can remaining 80GB be used as non-redundant /tmp?

That would be possible, but RAID1 /tmp would be better, as a disk error would be less disruptive.

[jcc]

That would be possible, but RAID1 /tmp would be better, as a disk error would be less disruptive.

Hi,
I have a likely question:
If i have only two different HDD´s, what would you suggest for the unpartioned space (in my case 60 GB)?
Isn't the possibility to mount it as /tmp, the best choice?
Or may be it could be used as a kind of archive?

Regards