Most ironclad way to make root installation redundant and maximize uptime? RAID, ZFS or something else?
I would like to set up by desktop computer (which is actually a server for the KVM guests I do my actual work in) to have redundant root installation. If one drive dies I want to quickly get back to work without doing a full restore from backup, nor a system reinstall and reset all my settings and preferences.
I thought that the way to do this would be RAID1, but the deeper I dig into it, the more I realize that RAID1 is not a 'set-it-and-forget-it' solution. Oh, and I want it to be UEFI boot.
Last time I tried a software RAID1 install (which I set up using the Ubuntu Server installer), something got corrupted and I ended up with a GRUB rescue screen and could not for the life of me figure out how to get it to boot from the mirror drive. For all I know, the boot sector on both was corrupted due to the corruption replicating between drives. Obviously this defeats the purpose of having a RAID1 boot for the purpose of decreased downtime. I was thinking that maybe I should put the EFI partition on a USB drive and keep it backed up for quick and easy replacement (while having the root partition in RAID1), but I am worried that I might now always know then the EFI partition has changed and therefore will not know when to back it up.
I was also thinking to do ZFS-on-root, in the thought that the bitrot protection and snapshotting might be more useful in preventing situations like the one above. But it seems that ZFS on root is not recommended for Ubuntu, and the status of ZFS on Linux in general seems to be in question now due to a certain Linux Kernel programmer's stated lack of tolerence for ZFS.
The last thing I was thinking was to just do a regular one-drive install and then every week or so dd it to a spare drive, so that if disaster strikes I can at least recover my settings and installation from a week ago or less. But wouldn't dding an SSD every week be really hard on it?
I have found countless tutorials about RAID and ZFS, but so far have not found anything that clearly explains to pros and cons of my options with respect to the goal stated above. Advice or links to explanations would be greatly appreciated!
system-installation zfs software-raid uptime redundancy
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
add a comment |
I would like to set up by desktop computer (which is actually a server for the KVM guests I do my actual work in) to have redundant root installation. If one drive dies I want to quickly get back to work without doing a full restore from backup, nor a system reinstall and reset all my settings and preferences.
I thought that the way to do this would be RAID1, but the deeper I dig into it, the more I realize that RAID1 is not a 'set-it-and-forget-it' solution. Oh, and I want it to be UEFI boot.
Last time I tried a software RAID1 install (which I set up using the Ubuntu Server installer), something got corrupted and I ended up with a GRUB rescue screen and could not for the life of me figure out how to get it to boot from the mirror drive. For all I know, the boot sector on both was corrupted due to the corruption replicating between drives. Obviously this defeats the purpose of having a RAID1 boot for the purpose of decreased downtime. I was thinking that maybe I should put the EFI partition on a USB drive and keep it backed up for quick and easy replacement (while having the root partition in RAID1), but I am worried that I might now always know then the EFI partition has changed and therefore will not know when to back it up.
I was also thinking to do ZFS-on-root, in the thought that the bitrot protection and snapshotting might be more useful in preventing situations like the one above. But it seems that ZFS on root is not recommended for Ubuntu, and the status of ZFS on Linux in general seems to be in question now due to a certain Linux Kernel programmer's stated lack of tolerence for ZFS.
The last thing I was thinking was to just do a regular one-drive install and then every week or so dd it to a spare drive, so that if disaster strikes I can at least recover my settings and installation from a week ago or less. But wouldn't dding an SSD every week be really hard on it?
I have found countless tutorials about RAID and ZFS, but so far have not found anything that clearly explains to pros and cons of my options with respect to the goal stated above. Advice or links to explanations would be greatly appreciated!
system-installation zfs software-raid uptime redundancy
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
add a comment |
I would like to set up by desktop computer (which is actually a server for the KVM guests I do my actual work in) to have redundant root installation. If one drive dies I want to quickly get back to work without doing a full restore from backup, nor a system reinstall and reset all my settings and preferences.
I thought that the way to do this would be RAID1, but the deeper I dig into it, the more I realize that RAID1 is not a 'set-it-and-forget-it' solution. Oh, and I want it to be UEFI boot.
Last time I tried a software RAID1 install (which I set up using the Ubuntu Server installer), something got corrupted and I ended up with a GRUB rescue screen and could not for the life of me figure out how to get it to boot from the mirror drive. For all I know, the boot sector on both was corrupted due to the corruption replicating between drives. Obviously this defeats the purpose of having a RAID1 boot for the purpose of decreased downtime. I was thinking that maybe I should put the EFI partition on a USB drive and keep it backed up for quick and easy replacement (while having the root partition in RAID1), but I am worried that I might now always know then the EFI partition has changed and therefore will not know when to back it up.
I was also thinking to do ZFS-on-root, in the thought that the bitrot protection and snapshotting might be more useful in preventing situations like the one above. But it seems that ZFS on root is not recommended for Ubuntu, and the status of ZFS on Linux in general seems to be in question now due to a certain Linux Kernel programmer's stated lack of tolerence for ZFS.
The last thing I was thinking was to just do a regular one-drive install and then every week or so dd it to a spare drive, so that if disaster strikes I can at least recover my settings and installation from a week ago or less. But wouldn't dding an SSD every week be really hard on it?
I have found countless tutorials about RAID and ZFS, but so far have not found anything that clearly explains to pros and cons of my options with respect to the goal stated above. Advice or links to explanations would be greatly appreciated!
system-installation zfs software-raid uptime redundancy
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
I would like to set up by desktop computer (which is actually a server for the KVM guests I do my actual work in) to have redundant root installation. If one drive dies I want to quickly get back to work without doing a full restore from backup, nor a system reinstall and reset all my settings and preferences.
I thought that the way to do this would be RAID1, but the deeper I dig into it, the more I realize that RAID1 is not a 'set-it-and-forget-it' solution. Oh, and I want it to be UEFI boot.
Last time I tried a software RAID1 install (which I set up using the Ubuntu Server installer), something got corrupted and I ended up with a GRUB rescue screen and could not for the life of me figure out how to get it to boot from the mirror drive. For all I know, the boot sector on both was corrupted due to the corruption replicating between drives. Obviously this defeats the purpose of having a RAID1 boot for the purpose of decreased downtime. I was thinking that maybe I should put the EFI partition on a USB drive and keep it backed up for quick and easy replacement (while having the root partition in RAID1), but I am worried that I might now always know then the EFI partition has changed and therefore will not know when to back it up.
I was also thinking to do ZFS-on-root, in the thought that the bitrot protection and snapshotting might be more useful in preventing situations like the one above. But it seems that ZFS on root is not recommended for Ubuntu, and the status of ZFS on Linux in general seems to be in question now due to a certain Linux Kernel programmer's stated lack of tolerence for ZFS.
The last thing I was thinking was to just do a regular one-drive install and then every week or so dd it to a spare drive, so that if disaster strikes I can at least recover my settings and installation from a week ago or less. But wouldn't dding an SSD every week be really hard on it?
I have found countless tutorials about RAID and ZFS, but so far have not found anything that clearly explains to pros and cons of my options with respect to the goal stated above. Advice or links to explanations would be greatly appreciated!
system-installation zfs software-raid uptime redundancy
system-installation zfs software-raid uptime redundancy
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
asked 11 mins ago
ThoughtcraftThoughtcraft
1669
1669
add a comment |
add a comment |
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