[linux-lvm] Using LVM Mirroring to obtain a usable backup

[Mark H. Wood]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 08:58:08PM -0400, Stuart D. Gathman wrote:
> A high end SAN server means you allocate "disks" from the SAN instead
> of buying physical disks.  Adding another "disk" to a server can be as
> simple as allocating another "LV" (or whatever the SAN software calls it)
> and attaching it.  The OP would simply clone his disk in the SAN
> (and needn't worry about the duplicate VGID as long he doesn't attach 
> the clone) before doing the upgrade.

Dunno if I'd call our HP MSA1510i "high end" but it works like that.
Just define an initiator, slice off some storage, and assign it.

I usually think of the FC-based stuff as "high end" since a single
fiber switch tends to cost more than we paid for our whole ~16TB iSCSI
SAN.  (Now expanded to more like 40TB and we should be able to take it
up to around 80TB.)

> I have one client with a SAN system, and it seems to perform well.
> It is one client that never needs to install a physical disk on a
> server I maintain for them.  (Caveat, booting from iSCSI requires
> bringing up a Nic - which is tricky to do for linux in initrd.)

A few (more pricey) NICs include iSCSI on the card and would appear to
serve as a normal boot disk so far as the host is concerned.  I
haven't tried that yet.  FC HBAs all seem to have this (and for what
they cost, they should).

-- 
Mark H. Wood, Lead System Programmer   mwood at IUPUI.Edu
Friends don't let friends publish revisable-form documents.
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