On Wednesday, July 20, 2016 06:13:36 PM Jarry wrote: > Hi Gentoo-users, > > I'm going to build a small server with Xen-hypervisor with > Gentoo as dom0 (if it is possible). Comming from ESXi-world, > there is no choice (only true hw-raid is supported). > > But what about Linux? What's preffered way to go? Software-raid > (mdadm), or true hardware raid-controller? I have a few spares > (LSI-9271), these worked quite well with ESXi but I'm not sure > they are supported by Linux at all, and if there is actually > some way of monitoring controller-health...
LSI is generally quite well supported with Linux. See: https://www.thomas-krenn.com/en/wiki/Smartmontools_with_MegaRAID_Controller This indicates that LSI cards also provide SMART-data of the disks itself via smartmontools. > Concerning sw-raid, I have used it for quite some time, but > never with Xen (is it actually possible?). Yes, it is possible. But the reason why software raid can be faster on bare metal, might no longer be true when using Xen best practices. Dedicating a limited amount of cores to the dom0 also means that you have less cores available for the software raid part. > Moreover, grub-config > for Xen itself is somehow more complicated and sw-raid could add > extra complexity... Using Grub1: --- title Xen root (hd0,1) kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=4GB,max:4G console=vga dom0_max_vcpus=1 dom0_vcpus_pin module /kernel-4.1.7-hardened-r1-host softlevel=xen --- I compile in the initramfs and commandline these days. But if using a seperate one, simply add an extra "module" line: --- title Xen root (hd0,1) kernel /xen.gz dom0_mem=4GB,max:4G console=vga dom0_max_vcpus=1 dom0_vcpus_pin module /kernel-3.16.5-gentoo dolvm root=/dev/vg/root rootfstype=ext4 module /initramfs-genkernel-x86_64-3.16.5-gentoo --- > So the question is simple. For Xen-server with Gentoo as dom0, > what do you recommend: sofware- or hardware-raid? > > Any other general tips concerning Xen (particularly with Gentoo > as dom0)? No specific Gentoo-tips, it's actually quite well supported. If you prefer an appliance-like dom0, you could also look into XenServer. There is a free-to-use version available. Downside: the graphical management client is MS Windows only. -- Joost
