Linux and software-raid are new to me so I thought I'd run my plans by experienced users to help me find holes in my understanding and thinking. I am building a web server using RH 6.0 boxed on a system with 3 IDE drives. I want to use software raid-1 mirroring on two of the drives. I plan to use the third drive for a combination of a configuration/emergency system and to provide a mountable filesystem for storing system and application archives for disaster recovery. I hope to use raid-1 on the prod system for all but the /boot and swap filesystems. It should look as follows: pri-mast -> hda: prod sys: -/boot, swap1 -plus "left mirror": /, /usr, /home, /var, /var/lib/mysql pri-slave-> hdb: config/emergency sys -plus /backup (tar archive) filesystem sec-mast-> hdc: prod sys (right mirror) -/boot, swap2 -plus "right mirror": /, /usr, /home, /var, /var/lib/mysql Recovery scenarios I've thought of are as follows: o If I loose one of the raid drives and my system survives (unlikely due to swap): -continue to run on surviving drive until maint convenient. Then: -Power down -replace failed drive -boot emergency system (hdb using Lilo if hdc failed -or- loadlin.exe if hda failed "loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb8") -mount and tar backup surviving file systems -partition new drive -rebuild mirrors -tar restore surviving filesystems -reboot production system. o If I loose one of the raid drives and the system crashes (more likely) - boot the emergency system (as above) -edit the /etc/fstab on the surviving drive point to surviving drive filesystems (i.e. 'md0'->'hdc5'). -boot production system (hda or hdc) using Lilo if hdc failed -or- loadlin.exe if hda failed "loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hdc8") -run unmirrored until maint is convenient -perform 1st recovery procedure above. o If data corruption has occurred -boot the emergency system -perform any necessary prepatory steps (i.e. break mirrors if necessary (as above)) -tar restore system and application archives from periodic backup (daily) -reboot production system -run until maint is convenient -perform 1st recovery procedure above (if appropriate). What do you think? Also, I'm having some trouble starting Linux with loadlin which I will run from an emergency diskette which I created as follows: from W98-DOS window -> format a: /s from Linux ->: mount /mnt/cdrom mount -t vfat /dev/fd0 /mnt/floppy cp /mnt/cdrom/dosutils/loadlin.exe /mnt/floppy cp /boot/vmlinuz /mnt/floppy umount /mnt/floppy To boot emergency linux system without Lilo: -boot emergency diskette -enter following command-> a:loadlin vmlinuz root=/dev/hdb8 When I enter the loadlin command I get a message saying that vmlinuz is not an image file. This procedure came from the RH Linux Unleashed book. Thanks for any help, Joel Fowler
