Setting up gmirror

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Tue, Sep 30, 2008 at 10:34:53PM -0600, Andrew Falanga wrote:
> I've just finished setting up a new web server, and if I get my DNS
> stuff correct hopefully an e-mail server too, for my church.
> Originally, the intention was to use RAID1 on the MOBO.  However, the
> RAID controller on the MOBO consistently tried to make the SATA DVD
> drive part of the RAID array and wouldn't boot the FreeBSD boot disk.
> So, at the suggestion of another respondent here, I've decided to use
> gmirror.

Stay away from BIOS-level RAID.  If you want evidence of why, especially
with regards to Intel MatrixRAID, here you go:

http://wiki.freebsd.org/JeremyChadwick/ATA_issues_and_troubleshooting

And yes, these are FreeBSD problems, but the severity is so high that
there is a very good chance you will lose your data in the case of a
failure.  Simply put, don't risk it.

Stick with gmirror or ZFS, unless you have reason to use ccd (it's old,
but it does still work).

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |