DRBD & Software RAID

[Sascha]

Hello,

what about DRBD on Software RAID 10... also doesn't make sense?

I just made bad experiences using 3ware 9550SX inklusive BBU. The controller didn't work properly and caused errors and dataloss. Then I bougt a second 9550SX-controller: same problem.

So, I decided to go with software RAID now (btw. its much faster than the 9550SX hw-raid). If one of my servers crashes, the other servers will take over (DRBD)... Thats the plan. So, I think it would be even more secure than bbu. Wouldn't it?

+I'm afraid I could not find the whole information and discussions about Software RAID because some links seem to be broken (e.g. http://www.proxmox.com/forum/showthread.php?t=398).

Regards,
Sascha

 

[tom]

if you can´t find a thread just use the search function (very powerful).

softraid and drbd? I would never use this. much to complicated to configure and administer in case of failure - and also read the DRBD recommendations regarding meta data (http://www.drbd.org/users-guide/ch-internals.html).
if you have hardware raid with bbu, you can use internal meta-data.

 

[Sascha]

Thank you for repairing the link in SoftwareRAID/ProxmoxWIKI.

And thank you for answering my questions. I would like to know more about it...

Why is Software RAID + DRBD too complicated in emergency cases? I have two servers using softraid and DRBD up and running. If one of these servers losed its data (because of the softraid disadvantages), I would simply rebuild the array + drbd-meta-data and resynchronize... Even booting Proxmox on a hardware raid 1 and maintaining the data on DRBD + Software RAID would be no reliable option?

Up on your advice I read the DRBD documentation about internal meta-data. I found no references that softraid could cause bad performance or even harm the meta-data.

Sascha

 

[SirLouen]

I've been using soft raid long time ago for proxmox successfully. Is not recommended by the way, buy for some reason it won't harm your system...

I have not used DRBD in proxmox environments, I'm looking forward for someone else experience. Tell us how it went.

 

[tom]

...
Up on your advice I read the DRBD documentation about internal meta-data. I found no references that softraid could cause bad performance or even harm the meta-data.
Sascha

Its not that easy to understand. But it make sense to follow the hints and recommendations of the founder´s of DRBD (Linbit) and see Florian´s blog about meta data.

The best place to discuss DRBD is the DRBD community, mailing list.