Table of Contents

Preface 1. Introduction RAID Terminology The RAID Levels: An Overview RAID on Linux Hardware Versus Software 2. Planning and Architecture Hardware or Software? The RAID Levels: In Depth RAID Case Studies: What Should I Choose? Disk Failures Hardware Considerations Making Sense of It All 3. Getting Started: Building a Software RAID Kernel Configuration Working with Software RAID Creating an Array The Next Step 4. Software RAID Reference Kernel Options md Block Special Files /proc and Software RAID raidtools mdadm 5. Hardware RAID Choosing a RAID Controller Preparing Controllers and Disks General Configuration Issues Mylex Adaptec Promise Technology 3ware Escalade ATA RAID Controller LSI Logic (MegaRAID) 6. Filesystems Basic Filesystem Concepts The Linux Virtual Filesystem (VFS) ext2 ext3 Extensions for the ext2 Filesystem ReiserFS IBM JFS SGI XFS 7. Performance, Tuning, and Maintenance Monitoring RAID Devices Managing Disk Failures Configuring Hard Disk Parameters Performance Testing Booting with Software RAID A. Additional Resources B. Hardware RAID Controller Vendors Index

About the Author

Derek Vadala lives in New York City. He works for azurance.com, an open source and security consulting firm that he co-founded. He has been published in SysAdmin Magazine, Linux Journal, The Perl Journal, and The Journal of Linux Technology.

Reviews

"Finally, the book contains a good index and a brief appendix giving links to other sources. A very useful volume that should find favour with anyone who wishes to implement RAID on a Linux system." - Steve Boniwell, HP/Works