Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Alan McKinnon <alan.mckinnon@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: Re: [gentoo-user] Writing a bash script or thinking about it anyway.
Date: Tue, 22 Dec 2009 14:53:28
Message-Id: 200912221651.08955.alan.mckinnon@gmail.com
In Reply to: Re: [gentoo-user] Writing a bash script or thinking about it anyway. by "Christian Könitzer"
1 On Tuesday 22 December 2009 16:21:08 Christian Könitzer wrote:
2 > a question to b):
3 > Can you tell me a fs that supports snappshots (I'm planing to set up a
4 > new server so you can choose a new fs... (now I am using reiserfs)) and
5 > maybe how to use it (link)? So if you say "or LSM" does this mean I can
6 > achieve this also woth LVM? How?
7 > thx...
8
9 None of the traditional filesystems (ext2|3, reiser) support snapshots. ZFS<
10 Btrfs do, possibly ext4 also (the last is a hunch only).
11
12 LVM snapshots a volume, not the filesystem on it. So it tracks extents that
13 have changed, not individual files. For backup purposes though, volume and fs
14 snapshots are equivalent.
15
16 Snapshots with LVM are easy as pie:
17
18 - create a new volume which is a snapshot of an existing one
19 - mount the snapshot somewhere
20 - copy,backup,etc as you like. The volume is read-only so you can't break it
21 - umount snapshot
22 - destroy snapshot
23
24 The LVM man pages contain a wealth of data, as does Google and the LVM
25 documentation at redhat.com
26
27 >
28 > If you have some more tips, my current server runs on a single HDD and a
29 > daily rsync to another computer makes my backup. In my new server I'd
30 > like to improve as much as possible for as less money and energy as
31 > possible (since it's only for me...) so I thought about RAID as well.
32 > Today I'm using very old standard desktop hardware and for the new one I
33 > like to use also standard hardware so I don't know if I can afford a
34 > RAID-5 card or so... and I never made software RAID... do you have some
35 > recommendations (links?)? thx
36
37 Cheap dumbass hardware raid is not worth the money. This includes every single
38 on-board raid controlled it has ever been my misfortune to behold. Some of
39 them are even called RAID but aren't - they're just a fancy multipath thingy
40 and might let you only choose RAID 1 or 5, or even only RAID 1 in some cases
41
42 Software raid built into the linux kernel is a far better solution. Again,
43 Google will return enough hits that it will take you a year to read all the
44 good docs....
45
46 Proper hardware add-on cards *are* worth the money though and deliver great
47 results. Your post indicates that you won't want to spend what they cost
48 though
49
50 --
51 alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com

Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] Writing a bash script or thinking about it anyway. "Jesús Guerrero" <i92guboj@×××××.es>