Hello,

I'm somewhat concerned with the current state of the RAIDframe
documentation and I would like to get some answers from members of
this mailing list so I can help to improve it.  Here is the URL:

http://www.netbsd.org/guide/en/chap-rf.html

I am particularly interested in this documentation because I use
NetBSD/sparc64.  I use RAID-1 on the boot disks of three Suns for
obvious reasons.  My concern is that some of the sparc64 specific
parts of the RAIDframe documentation seem to be incorrect.  I'm hoping
to get some firm answers to these questions so that I can recommend
changes to the documentation with confidence.  Here are my specific
concerns:

1.  In my testing I have discovered that after I have created both
    components of the mirror I have been unable to boot from the
    original boot disk.  My solution was to create a small partition,
    'e', which holds the boot block and ofwboot.  Has anyone
    successfully booted an Ultra 1, an Ultra 5, or any other sparc64
    computer from both "/dev/[sw]d0a" and "/dev/[sw]d1a" after
    creating a RAID-1 boot disk mirror per the RAIDframe
    documentation?  I intend to recommend changes to the RAIDframe
    documentation that reflect my testing unless someone can convince
    me otherwise.

2.  The reason for choosing a particular dumpdev partition size is not
    stated in the RAIDframe documentation and I believe it should be.
    It is stated in swapctl(8); however, I believe that there are some
    users who will not know how to properly select a size for this
    partition and may select one which is too small.  I believe the
    RAIDframe documentation should be modified to state that the
    dumpdev partition size should be equal to or larger than than the
    amount of physical memory the computer has installed.
    Furthermore, I believe it would be wise to caution users that they
    may wish to consider the maximum amount of physical memory their
    computer can accommodate and consider the likelihood of an upgrade
    that would cause their dumpdev partition to be undersized.  Do I
    correctly understand dumpdev size selection?  Should these
    concerns be included in the RAIDframe documentation?

If you would like to read more about my testing and why I'm now
writing port-sparc64 please read my posts on netbsd-docs beginning
August of this year.

http://mail-index.netbsd.org/netbsd-docs/2005/08/

Thanks in advance for your feedback,
Ryan