Hi all,
Sorry if this post is a bit long, but I feel a little information is needed for proper response.
as new user of OS I have some questions regarding new install and configuration as well as best practices.
the story:
I am new to Linux in general and OS in particular. I played with ubuntu and mint before.
but was swayed into trying OS by more experienced users noting that it might be better distro for what I am trying to do.
I am trying to put together a good file server/VM server for a home lab.
mostly for home use and some learning and testing.
I currently run UnRaid system for file server for my HTPC media needs.
this project started when I desided to virtualize the unRaid and have a good VM server instead of just file server.
my hardware is not 100% VM compatible (it’s an AMD based system with limited support for IOMMU) but still capable as my efforts with Ubuntu + Xen showed.
after some time paling with a notion of virtualizing UnRaid , and doing related research I came to a realization that I could probobly build out a good system without using UnRaid and still have most if not all benefits UnRaid provided.
system is : SuperMicro H8DME-2 MB with 2 AMD six core Opteron 2.4gHz CPUs
56GB DDR2 ECC RAM 3x8SATA SAS cards for total of 24 HDD + 6 onboard SATA ports
2 on board Gig NICs + 1 dual port intel pro NIC for total of 4 NIC interfaces.
supermicro case with 24 hot-swap bays
Available to start :
1-laptop HDD 120GB
1 - hitachi HDD 2TB
1 - WD HDD 1TB
Available after build is done and data is moved from current server :
3 - Seagate HDD 2TB
wants and needs :
build a reliable file server with dependable HDD configuration for data storage.
that also have other sue as VM server for several VMs as needed.
Ideally I want to:
install the system onto small laptop HDD (120gb) connected to MB SATA port first
setup Xen on the new system
Setup a btrfs + Raid5/6 + LVM +SAMBA/NFS on data disks (that would be all disks connected to SAS card(s) and in the hot-swap bays) to replace my unRaid setup.
have VM running pfSence to replace my router
have VM for FOG or Clonezilla server for imaging/clonning of PC for back up and replacement needs. maybe even use some as VDI in the future.
have VM for Windows 7/8 to use as DVR/PVR when I get a network tuner
have VM with Ubuntu or other distro running Transmission/SickBeard/subsnzb/coahPotato
maybe a trans-coding software to process convert my media library.
have a VM runing Media server not sure what yet, options are Plex, MediaServer, servio,Amahi? anyone recommendations are welcome and apreciated.
Issues/Questions so far:
I had some problems installing the latest release of OS
no matter how I booted the server Virtual DVD via IPMI to local drive .Virtual DVD via IPMI to ISO / local DVD as soon as I started the install it would drop to black text mode and run some crazy text screens hanging at some point and stop the install.
I tried F3 with no KMS and all nothing helped.
finally I installed it by booting with Live CD and doing install from with in the desktop GUI.
it seams a little sluggish to respond but it worked except I can not get to the internet to do updates and other installs.
when on install I tried to use btrfs as default FS it would error out and drop the install.
using suggested EXT4 for /root and /home worked fine
QUESTION: it is all on one HDD now.
A. is it possible to setup the system on a pair of HDD in RAID1 config for redundancy?
B. is it possible to move the setup to RAID1 array without resintall?
as in, if I buy second HDD can I do a soft raid1 on a working system. for a system disk?
Any help on troubleshooting/fixing network config (at this point this is at most importance)
and suggestions, recommendation, pitfalls of the proposed build?
Unless you have real hardware RAID or go to software RAID on a new install (not fake/BIOS assisted ) then there is a problem installing to existing RAIDed drives with 12.3. This is a known problem and the work around seems to be install 12.2 then do a net upgrade to 12.3
For net problem did you go to Yast and set up the net stuff. This is sometime needed.
btrfs is still experimental and unless you want to experiment I would not recommend. Also if you had exiting RAID then you may have run into the RAID install problem. It is unclear if you where trying to install to an existing RAID array.
No I do not have an exiting RAID,
this is a new hardware setup using single laptop drive for system, planning to use existing 3.5 drives as data store.
so for the sake of simplicity let say I have a single drive to install the system.
but I would like to have system on a raided setup with RAID1 (mirrored drives)
if I setup system now using single drive, can I convert the setup to raided later on?
as for btrfs, I though that it is past experimental already, I see lots of mentions of people using it for data stores and seam to like it very much.
At the release of 12.3 brtfs was still marked beta on the development site. It has recently been changed. but I consider having snap turned on by default to be ugly and should not be used unless you know what you do. A file system that eats up disk space for snapshots in the background with no notice to the user until the partition is full is just nuts.
As to the RAID question. It may be possible but really it is best to set RAID up at the beginning. Or back up everything install RAID and restore. In any case any time you do a serious change to a partition you should back things up anyway.
Also consider that RAID is not a backup solution it is a up time solution. With RAID you still need backups. With RAID 1 you can keep running if one drive falls over.
> if I setup system now using single drive, can I convert the setup to
> raided later on?
A data partition is feasible, yes. The root partition is more difficult
to convert. You might need an extra /boot partition (you need it if root
is btrfs, AFAIK).
I think I should stress that you need to consider also if you have the
extra hardware for taking backups. If you don’t, then don’t use raid,
instead use the extra drive for offline backup.
A raid drive is a method to protect you from failure of one disk; it
does not protect you from corruption of the filesystem, accidental
deletes, software misbehavior/crashes, power failures, etc.
> as for btrfs, I though that it is past experimental already, I see lots
> of mentions of people using it for data stores and seam to like it very
> much.
The version in 13.1 you can consider stable. I was almost made the
default filesystem. The version in 12.3 maybe, I’m not sure it got all
the improvements backported.
–
Cheers / Saludos,
Carlos E. R.
(from 12.3 x86_64 “Dartmouth” at Telcontar)