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Old 08-21-2014, 09:47 PM   #1
lleb
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install with RAID 6 and 6x 3TB drives


Im about to upgrade form CentOS 6.x to v7 this weekend and I've also purchased 6x 3TB drives for this reason. I am going to use software RAID in order to deal with the RAID. I know maybe not the best solution, but for my home NFS server should be good enough.

My question is as I have chosen to disable the "secure boot" from my BIOS will I be able to create the 12TB drive? as a single drive or will I have to create 2 RAID 2 devices in order to get the OS and everything else?

If so how? many thanks. first time messing with RAID in well over a decade.
 
Old 08-22-2014, 03:31 PM   #2
jefro
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I don't see any reason you can't create a raid the way you wish at install time. Since you didn't say how you are doing this I can't really guess.

The default FS should be XFS and a lot of work has been put into that in the last few years. As to how to create the best raid with xfs may be a topic you'd need to look at. Use native tools first.


https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/RAID_setup#XFS
 
Old 08-22-2014, 03:53 PM   #3
lleb
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many thanks. yes it will be a fresh install. the goal is to take the 6 drives and create a single RAID 6 from them, then partition up as I would normally for my NFS media server.

thank you for the link. from what I've read RHEL v now uses xfs as its default filesystem, thus the upgrade on my system for RAM. thats an other story. LoL MSI motherboard died during the RAM upgrade. just got it back today and its up and running with the upgraded RAM. Im hoping that with 12G of total storage that 16G RAM is enough for xfs to utilize without slowing the system down.
 
Old 08-22-2014, 07:45 PM   #4
jefro
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I'll have to read up on how to use xfs better myself. Some posts suggest xfs on top of lvm is a bad idea.

I'm always a fan of hardware raid.

ZFS and Btrfs have some features that make raid almost easy and still may be worth looking at.
 
Old 08-22-2014, 08:01 PM   #5
lleb
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yes i would normally agree, but for my home server the software is going to be just fine for my needs also keeping in mind its for a media server so i dont really need good write speeds just high read and software RAID6 will give that to me.
 
Old 08-23-2014, 03:37 PM   #6
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Let us know how it goes then and how you did set it up.
 
Old 08-23-2014, 05:56 PM   #7
lleb
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the new anaconda is a bit cumbersome. I like the Fedora one a tab better. so here are a few bits to note that might help others down the road.

1. you must manually configure the network device (wired or wireless) before you can select a netinstall repo. this is not typical for anaconda installers as they typically will automatically configure any network device it detects with DHCP then prompt if you wish to make adjustments, etc... had to find that on google

2. once you have configured the NIC (i went with static as i run all fixed computers in my home via static) i was then able to tell the installer what URL to look for and poof it connected and away that section went. cheers there.

3. the drive configuration. as its been ages since I last did a software RAID configuration I can not say if it is any better or not then the older vs. last time i did a software RAID was with RH9, no that is not a typo. The key to setting up the software RAID with the new anaconda installer is as follows:

3a. configure your standard partitions as is required for the OS and your BIOS. I had to install a biosboot 1M partition in order to continue, thankfully anaconda informed me of that issue.
3b. after /boot and for me /biosboot are created then start creating /swap / /home etc... while creating those you will be given the chance to change the partition type. This is were you can select LVM and a few other options, but i was after RAID. then you are given a new selection bar to choose the type of RAID again for me this was RAID6. wash/repeat for all partitions you wish to be in the RAID.
I chose the following partitions:
Code:
# df -Th
Filesystem     Type      Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md127     xfs        49G  2.2G   47G   5% /
devtmpfs       devtmpfs  7.7G     0  7.7G   0% /dev
tmpfs          tmpfs     7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /dev/shm
tmpfs          tmpfs     7.8G  8.8M  7.7G   1% /run
tmpfs          tmpfs     7.8G     0  7.8G   0% /sys/fs/cgroup
/dev/sda2      xfs       506M  160M  347M  32% /boot
/dev/md124     xfs        11T   34M   11T   1% /exports
/dev/dm-1      xfs       500G   33M  500G   1% /home
encrypting both /swap and /home I did not encrypt /exports. maybe later Ill think about it, but for now no.

4. select the install type, i sadly chose the file server option, should of just chosen basic no frills setup as im installing all of the tools/services/etc... that I would need anyways.

5. tell system to go and set root password and create 1 user only. you are unable at this point in time to create additional users. i do miss that from the older anaconda installers.

6. in about 15min the install was complete and I was able to reboot into a brand new CentOS v7.x system running as I had desired. There is a ton of major changes in CentOS v7 vs 6 and older specifically the introduction of systemd as a replacement for initV. the old initV is still there, but it is aliased to systemctl (command for systemd) also firewalld is replacing IPTables.

I am liking the systemd much better then the older initV, but im not as thrilled with firewalld vs IPTables. as of yet I have not found a any threads, wiki's, howto's on direct editing of firewalld unlike you had with IPTables. This is causing an issue with NFS as the firewall even though it states the ports are open, are most defiantly NOT open. so currently im running with zero firewall. that does not give me warm fuzzies.

thanks again for the feedback.
 
Old 08-25-2014, 02:49 PM   #8
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Thanks for the update and tips.
 
Old 08-25-2014, 10:07 PM   #9
lleb
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a few more notes now that the system has been up a few days.

1. way faster boot times then CentOS v6.x Id go so far as to say 3x faster boot then CentOS v6

2. the system seems to respond faster too, now this could be the read/write performance of my new software RAID 6 vs the 3 disks, but it also appears the CPUs are running more efficient, cooler, and its not near as much of a memory hog as v6 was.

keeping in mind that in addition to NFS, my server is also running Plex Media Server, Minecraft server, and F@H so I hammer the CPU/RAM rather hard.

Again from what little time i've spent with CentOS v7, I am liking what I am seeing.
 
  


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