[HLUG] Multiple disk setup

[paul.maddox.mail-list at synth.net]

Hi,

> The setup I'm looking at, based on my limited experience and
> understanding of under-the-bonnet Linux, is as follows:
>
> - one 20Gb HSS as /dev/hda1, partioned as /, /boot and swap; to be used
> for the OS only
>
> - two 40Gb drives, which I'd like to 'pair as one',and then mount
> as /home
>
> I'm not looking for parity, backup, striping or similar RAID functions,
> I just want to have one large 80Gb disk. Am I looking to LVM to achieve
> the 'pairing' of the two 40Gb drives, so as to be mounted under the same
> mount point?

RAID 0

> Further (these are all IDE drives); how would I go about cabling/IDE
> channels?
> Currently, my DVD is one it's own cable, one the first IDE channel;
> while the two existing drives (/root & /home) share an IDE cable on the
> second IDE channel, using the master/slaves jumpers for selection.
> (IIRC, the master is on the end of the ribbon, while the slave sits on
> the connector halfway along the ribbon).

Toughy this, putting the DVD drive on the same bus as the boot drive could
slow it down.....
Hmmm, how about ;-

Channel 0  master - Boot
Channel 0  slave - 40g disk for part of RAID 0 pair
Channel 1  master - 40g disk for part of RAID 0 pair
Channel 1  slave - DVD drive

in this way, when using RAID 0 you should get improved performance as the
data should go to one drive then the other. the only time this might slow
down is when you copy from the CD to the RAID set.

Paul