LVM advice for a noob

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Hi guys,

I am busy testing Proxmox (Debian base) as a virtual machine manager and I want to create a backup solution that allows me to use non-raid disks to manage everything.

The disk layout is as follows:

sda -> Proxmox installation drive (not interested in changing anything here).

sdb -> 1TB drive (want to use this as the main drive for my virtual machines).
sdc -> 1TB drive (want to use this as a backup location, mirrored with sdd).
sdd -> 1TB drive (want to use this as a backup location, mirrored with sdc).

I do not want to extend any partitions over 1 physical drive as if a drive fails I want to be able to easily access the data on the remaining drives.

What would be the best approach to get the LVM volumes set up for this? Do you have an idea on a better setup that would achieve the same results?

They need to be LVM volumes as I will be performing LVM snapshots in Proxmox.

TIA Linux gurus.

 

[Tinuva]

Your drive setup is odd...

That said, you will just create a regular partition on sdb and then create the volume group (vg) on top of that partition.
For sd[c-d] you will create a md raid1 array, and perhaps another vg on top of that.

If it was up to me, I would just raid10, and partition on top of that. Which will give you far better performance and slightly better protection, that is if sda is also a 1TB drive.

 

[DrJohnZoidberg]

Your drive setup is odd...

That said, you will just create a regular partition on sdb and then create the volume group (vg) on top of that partition.
For sd[c-d] you will create a md raid1 array, and perhaps another vg on top of that.

If it was up to me, I would just raid10, and partition on top of that. Which will give you far better performance and slightly better protection, that is if sda is also a 1TB drive.

Thanks, but I want to get rid of software raid. I think I'm coming right, will have to continue on Monday as it's almost time for braai!

 

[SBSP]

How will you mirror the disks without using software RAID ?
Will you merely copy the data from one disk to another using something like rsync ?

I stand to be corrected, but you can only “Mirror” AKA Snapshot the data from one disk to another when they belong in the same Volume Group.
Which means when you create the VG it will have to be spanned over all the drives to have all the LVM functionality across all drives.

You didn’t mention anything about Snapshots but,
Also remember that snapshots are not meant for permanent backups, its very useful to make a snapshot then backup for offsite storage purposes and also Onsite to prevent
Backup recall costs.
But not to be kept as a backup locally on a permanent basis (You could lose all of your data)

Why don’t you make use of a an existing system Like FreeNAS ?

Cheers