raid on a new server

[Ben Pfaff]

Sean <picasso@madflower.com> writes:

> You should be able to compile the modules (i cant remember if you can use
> a custom kernel or not.) and load them. Do an _expert_ install which will
> prompt you for additional drivers/modules. 

If you're planning to boot from a raid'd partition (possible only
in 2.2+ kernels) then you cannot use modules for RAID: instead,
you must compile the RAID type(s) that you need into your kernel
directly.

> The _other_ way to do this is to install on an IDE drive first, get your
> RAID going and your video running etc than move the filesystems over to
> the raid drives. 

There's no need to do that if you're willing to use a separate,
unraid'd root partition, which is often advisable anyhow.

Another option to to make a relatively large swap partition (100
MB or so), but use it as ext2 for an initial install, then mkswap
it after you've got raid set up on the other partition(s).

> Make _sure_ you tighten that system up before putting it on the network,
> im sure you have more than one kiddiescripter lurking about.

Always a good idea.

> Backups are nice too, once you get the system set up. tar and tape it.
> That way if you do get hacked you can go back to the original install. 
> (backing up user files is a nice touch too). 

You should always make regular backups of important data.  I do
nightly backups to DDS-[23] tape.