Subject: Re: Xen and Raidframe
To: Steven M. Bellovin <smb@cs.columbia.edu>
From: Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
List: port-xen
Date: 11/04/2006 21:15:58
On Sat, Nov 04, 2006 at 08:23:01AM -0500, Steven M. Bellovin wrote:
> I'm going to be setting up a new server to run several Xen machines.  I
> plan to have two drives and use (software) RAID for reliability.  I'm
> curious how other people are doing this.
> 
> One apparent option, for the production DOMUs, is to have matching
> partitions on each hard drive, and have the DOMUs do RAID themselves.  A
> second is to use a large DOM0 partition, with RAID, and assign a DOMu a
> file in that partition.  This strikes me as slower, but adequate for
> light-load and experimental servers.
> 
> Of course, the real question is whether either or both options actually
> work.

Both should work, but I've not tested raidframe in a domU recently.
Using RAID in dom0 is probably the best option; also using file-backed vbd
for domUs have only a small impact on performances, and is much easier to
deal with. I only use this on production systems.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--