Topic: Disk partions for a server with an SSD and HDDs

[edform]

After years away from setting up and supporting SME server installations, I want to set up an SME home server for email and file storage on a fanless PC with an SSD and a mirrored pair of spinning disks. Having searched repeatedly for several days now, both in the Wiki and the forums, and more generally in Google, I have been unable to find answers to a couple of questions and would be grateful for some help.

When installing the system, will it recognise the disk arrangement and partition accordingly, or will I need to use the partitioning tools in the install to force my desired layout of all OS stuff on the SSD and all data storage on the big HDDs?

If the answer is that I must ignore the default setup and partion the disks to suit, what are the required partitions, where should each be placed and how big should each be?

The disk arrangement is 1x256GB SSD + 2x6TB HDDs mirrored by backplane hardware.

For quick repair in the event of boot failure, I intended to duplicate the SSD once the server has been configured and store the copy.

Ed Form

[bunkobugsy]

Also thinking about this, but it won't work out of the box in 1 step install.
Setting up SME 11 (beta for now!) with only 2 x HDD present should get you the RAID1 array.
This could be later mounted on the standalone SSD install to /home.
This could be a quick way to migrate SME10 to 11 without massive data moving.

[edform]

Thanks bunkobugsy,

As I understand your reply, rather than trying to place the /home partition on the big mirror at install time, I should install on the SSD alone and then use the add-a-disk instructions to connect the big hardware mirror and mount it into the /home partition on the SSD.

Ed Form

[ReetP]

Need something like this to mount the array which I used to mount v9 data to a v10 server - modify as appropriate:

Code: [Select]

# Bind mount /dev/vdb3
UUID=85d40fa6-8e7b-41b4-be8c-566813997c82 /mnt/vdb3 ext4 def
aults 0 0

# Fully mount /dev/vdb3
/mnt/vdb3/home/e-smith/files/ibays /home/e-smith/files/ibays
 ext4 bind,uquota,gquota,noatime 0 0
/mnt/vdb3/home/e-smith/files/users /home/e-smith/files/users
 ext4 bind,uquota,gquota,noatime 0 0


[edform]

Thanks ReetP

I'm out of practice; it's about 15 years since I last ran an SME. The last couple of bits of hardware I need are due tomorrow and I'll begin installing.

I remember now that the system grabs all the disks you give it and turns them into a raid. I had hoped that the big differrence in disk size would persuade it not to do that and simply partition and format both, with the disk marked for boot in the BIOS getting the system parts and the other being set up as a storage facility. If it would not do that I thought it would be possible to steer the various partitions needed onto the right disks using partitioning options in the install routine. That's why I asked for a partition list and advice on size and location.

Ed Form

[sages]

My (rough) notes from sme 10 install.

Install new ssd as OS drive, install sme10 as single drive install.
Power down, install hd pair.
Power up and create raid 1 array with hd pair.
At this point you need to temporarily mount the new raid 1 array and copy /home/e-smith/files and sub folders to the new temp raid 1 mount. (alternatively you can use this https://unix.stackexchange.com/questions/4426/access-to-original-contents-of-mount-point to allow access to the underlying ssd drive location for file copying.
Unmount the raid 1 array and then mount new raid 1 data drive in /home/e-smith/files and modify mdadm.conf and fstab so automounts.
Check after reboot that all working ok.
df -hT should show if mounted correctly.

Rod

[edform]

Thanks Rod

As I said in a previous message, the last few bits arrive today and I'll assemble the server when I get them. Then I can work through the install and attaching the HDDs. I'll report the outcome when it's done.

Ed Form

[Jean-Philippe Pialasse]

alternatively use the anaconda gui partitionning tool
set ssd as 3 partitions / /boot amd swap
set hdd as /home/e-smith/files
install
ready to go

[edform]

alternatively use the anaconda gui partitionning tool
set ssd as 3 partitions / /boot amd swap
set hdd as /home/e-smith/files
install
ready to go

Thanks for the reply, Jean-Philippe.

I successfully set up the server on the SSD only and can inspect the partitions myself, but I ran into a major issue which I had not expected. The hardware of the little silent server cannot see disks as big as I'm using. *%!?^%$ So I have to attach them a different way before I can follow any of the advice I've been given up till now.

Since the disks came out of my desktop NAS and it can be set up as an iSCSI target really easily, plus, I've spotted that SME 10.1 has the iSCSI utils available,  I should be able to mount them that way. There are several useful looking guides to creating an iSCSI initiator in the RedHat world, so I'll play with that for a while.

Thanks to all who replied.

Ed Form