[SATLUG] filesystems ( was fileserver SATA + RAID question)

[Eli]

> Ever move 400GB of data on a live filesystems? :)
> I would rather not if I didn't have to.

not often. heh heh.  but i do occassionaly plan my servers. (but sometimes
i don't and just throw something together..I should probably use lvm in
those situations)

> Not trying to be argumentative here.. Just making a case for why to use it
> in
> this instance.

no argument here.  that's a great example.  i'm completely comfortable
with lvm (and vinum on freebsd).  I do realize the benefits.

It's just that on the budget servers I build, storage projection is
carefully considered, and then multipled by a factor of 2, somtimes 3. :-)
 Also, the number of ide ports that are required are planned & configured
(usually 2 on mobo, and 2 on pci card), and then a drive is plugged into
every channel.  So there aren't any channels left to do lvm anyway.
(unless you add via external units using usb/firewire, which isn't
something i would personally do on a production server, that's not my own
personal one)

I could see lvm being quite useful on a scsi system, where extra drives
can just be plugged into a scsi chain that can take 15 drives or more. 
Perhaps firewire as well, if it's just a personal server.

cost per megabyte is so cheap, it's easy to be liberal with my
projections. so in the end, it's pretty easy to plan out storage use, but
this is on budget hardware....so again I could see how LVM would become
more important on expensive systems, where tighter tolerances on
projections are required.

cause if your projections are wrong, lvm can save one's butt by making it
very easy to add storage to the same volume.

:)

~e