On Thu, Aug 23, 2001 at 12:49:09PM +0200, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > My question is whether it would be possible to install Debian onto a > software RAID
No, you can't _install_ Debian directly onto software RAID because the installation disks don't support it. You can, however, install a Debian system and then turn the disks into a RAID 1-or-higher. > and how that would work. See the Software-RAID-HOWTO. > I thought of creating a small ext2 partition mounted as /boot and then > having one linear RAID mounted as / - would this be a good idea? No. The problem with linear arrays (and even more so with vanilla striping) is that a failure on any single disk may cause you to lose access to all disks. Linear seems pretty pointless to me anyhow, as it tends to fill one disk, then go on to the net, typically resulting in worse performance than using the disks independently. Striping solves this, but at the price that a single disk failure is practically guaranteed to hose the entire array. > I've never > had any harddisk crashes, that's why I think that using a linear RAID > wouldn't be too much of a problem...but how do I create it prior to > installing Debian? With substantial difficulty, since the install kernel doesn't include RAID support. > Is this possible? Possible, but, again, very difficult. Unless you use a RAID-enabled kernel during installation, it is not possible to set up a 100% linear RAID or RAID 0 (striped) system. (Well, OK, I suppose you might be able to set up your system and then copy it over from plain disk to RAID, just like you would with a RAID 1-or-higher setup, but it doesn't seem like it would work as readily.) > How would I do it without turning my computer into a huge > paperweight? If you do it, IMO, you're asking for a paperweight. Either set things up as JBOD, like someone else suggested, or split off a chunk from each disk that's as big as the smallest one and set those up as a RAID 1 or 5 with the remaining space used as JBOD. -- With the arrest of Dimitry Sklyarov it has become apparent that it is not safe for non US software engineers to visit the United States. - Alan Cox "To prevent unauthorized reading..." - Adobe eBook reader license
