On Wed, 2006-03-15 at 08:25 -0600, Carl Wilhelm Soderstrom wrote:
> On 03/15 11:28 , Khaled Hussain wrote:
> > As far as I understand, with raid5, all raid5 partitions have to be the same
> > size, so why aren't sda3, sdb1, sdc1 not the same size?
>
> With linux software RAID, the partitions don't have to be the same size
> (last I knew). You only get data protection up to the size of the smallest
> partition tho. (I don't remember whether it continues filling up space on
> the remaining drives, or whether it just runs out of space at that point
> tho. I would suspect the latter).
It will use the largest common size of all 3 partitions. So if you've
got for instance sda3 = 90 GB, sdb1 = 100 GB and sdc1 = 95 GB, your
raid5 will be built from 3 x 90 GB. The leftover space of the partitions
sdb1 and sdc1 will not be used.
> I have a few pieces of advice for you:
> - Avoid software RAID if possible, especially in a commercial environment.
> The cost of a 3ware controller pretty much covers the time saved when a
> disk dies and you don't have to spend a couple hours monkeying with the
> array. (Software RAID arrays sometimes make the box fall over anyway when
> a disk dies. Your data may be saved, but the box still crashes.)
A problem with hardware raid is that if your raidcontroller dies, you
need exactly the same controller to get your array to work again. That
can be a problem after several years. Especially fun with an onboard
raid controller. With software raid you can just plug the drives into
another machine and keep on going.
I would only use hardware raid in a raid 5 environment. In raid1 or
raid10 the performance difference between hardware and software raid
isn't very large and I like the flexibility to easily move an array to
another machine.
Hth,
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