[Novalug] best hard disk setup for home file server?

[Richard Ertel]

it's not that "i know what all the options are and am ignoring the
best way to do things and i'm gonna do it my way damnit".

it's that "this is the best way that comes to my mind. i don't have
much experience with filesystems and mounts and volume groups and
other things that i don't even know about".

so any other ideas about how to organize things and solve the problem
that i have mentioned are MORE than welcome. i want to set my system
up in the best way based on my circumstances. chances are, the best
way is something that i just plain don't know about because of my
inexperience.

On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 18:58, Bryan J. Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
> Hey, if you want to put the entire VG at the mercy of any single
> array, MD, LVM issue, then that's your choice.
>
> To me, it's simple.  I create one VG per array.  I work my filesystems
> around that, grow them as necessary, create new filesystems and
> mount them as necessary, etc...  It localizes issue.
>
> If you're just plopping all movies into one directory, I don't know what
> to tell you.
>
>  --
> Bryan J  Smith           Professional, Technical Annoyance
> Linked Profile:         http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
> ----------------------------------------------------------
> Red Hat:  That 'other' American software company built on
> open customer selection of options and value, instead of
> controlled distribution channels of forced bundle and lock
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----
> From: Richard Ertel <richard.ertel at gmail.com>
> To: b.j.smith at ieee.org
> Cc: James Ewing Cottrell 3rd <JECottrell3 at comcast.net>; novalug-bounces at calypso2.tux.org; Novalug <novalug at calypso2.tux.org>
> Sent: Fri, October 16, 2009 4:45:25 PM
> Subject: Re: [Novalug] best hard disk setup for home file server?
>
> i guess this is a failure of understanding, then. the way that i
> currently understand it is: suppose i have a 1.5 TB RAID-0 array, made
> up of two 1.5 TB drives, and a 1.0 TB RAID-0 array, made up of two 1.0
> TB drives. on the 1.5 TB array, i have 1.2 TB of movies. on the 1.0 TB
> array, i have 100 GB of tv shows. i acquire 400 GB of movies.
>
> what do i do? put 300 GB (or a little less) of them on the 1.5 TB
> array and then make a movies directory on the 1.0 GB "tv shows" array
> and put the rest there?
>
> to me, that's not efficient. that's more work, both in the act of
> adding them to storage and in retrieving them.
>
> how would you tackle this with VGs and mounts and filesystems?
>
> On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 16:38, Bryan J Smith <b.j.smith at ieee.org> wrote:
>> 1.  It is _not_ more efficient use of space.  That's a legacy
>> FAT assumption that is wholly inapplicable in the inode world.
>> Same with mounts, they have no such drive letter issues.
>>
>> 2. You can still grow filesystems in the VGs, and you can still create new LVs and mount them under others to add more
>> space.  And yes, you can mix mounts from different VGs.
>>
>> 3.  Just because VGs let you throw everything into one pile
>> doesn't mean you should.  Don't.  Honestly.  I have to take the
>> virtual baseball bat to sysadmins on a weekly basis. ;)
>>
>> --
>> Bryan J Smith - mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org
>> http://www.linkedin.com/in/bjsmith
>> Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Richard Ertel <richard.ertel at gmail.com>
>> Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2009 16:28:06
>> To: James Ewing Cottrell 3rd<JECottrell3 at comcast.net>
>> Cc: Bryan J. Smith<b.j.smith at ieee.org>; <novalug-bounces at calypso2.tux.org>; Novalug<novalug at calypso2.tux.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Novalug] best hard disk setup for home file server?
>>
>> i have a movies directory, then inside that, each movie is in it's own
>> directory. ditto with tv shows, each series has it's own directory
>> inside the "tv shows" directory.
>>
>> my main interest in keeping one big filesystem is effecient use of
>> space. if i have separate filesystems for each kind of media, then
>> what happens when i load up proportionately more movies than tv shows?
>> i might run out of space on the movies filesystem, but still have
>> plenty of room in tv shows. feels more complicated from an end-user
>> standpoint, but i see the argument for it being technically more
>> sound.
>>
>> On Fri, Oct 16, 2009 at 12:39, James Ewing Cottrell 3rd
>> <JECottrell3 at comcast.net> wrote:
>>> Richard Ertel wrote:
>>>>
>>>> i prefer one volume group because that's the most efficient way to
>>>> store a bunch of files. if i have 2 TB of movies, for example, but two
>>>> 1.5 TB volumes, then i have to split the group somehow. seems messy to
>>>> me.
>>>>
>>>> are there better solutions?
>>>
>>> What, you're gonna put them all in one directory? If you put them in
>>> separate directories, like scifi (oops, syfy?), action, western, comedy,
>>> drama, pron, etc .....
>>>
>>> then you can just use smaller partitions and build your tree via mounts.
>>>
>>> heck, with stuff that big, just stuff them in a next available partition and
>>> build a tree of symlinks to them...that way you can index them by year,
>>> director, actor, as many ways as you like.
>>>
>>> JIM
>>>
>>> P.S. Yes, I think you should ditch those 1.5 TBs ... I'd be glad to recycle
>>> them for you.
>>>
>>
>
>