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Anyone have a guide to EVMS using the GUI?

G

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[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Oct 14, 2004
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I finally have a linux server going and I'd now like to load some data onto the machine. I want to use EVMS to setup the RAID-5. Problem is, every walkthrough uses the command line and I'm not really interested in learning it. Anyone have any tips on how to use the GUI? Do my drives need to be formatted to a linux format first?
 
If you cant find a guide googling, you're probably just better off using the command line. Its really not that difficult, especially seeing as most guides tell you exactly what to do. There's no reason to be afraid of the command line.
 
I hope I can make this post without this turning into another 4 page thread. I've read through the IBM documentation and to me it seems like a great document if you're a PhD and know all about EVMS already and you want something to give your friends who are also PhD's who want to read about EVMS. Very detailed, but I somehow doubt that these guys have made training materials before. :D

I also read the linked thread and I didn't really understand the greater portion of it. The funny thing is that I could roughly administer a ClarIIon, but getting my software RAID-5 going is difficult. I guess my questions, if someone is nice enough to answer them, are:

Do I need to format my drives for the RAID or will EVMS do this for me?
If they need to be formatted, what format should I use for them.
How do I go about adding them into a RAID array in EVMS?
How do I assign LUN's from the array?
Is it better that I have this as one large LUN or should I break it up for my needs and can I resize these dynamically?
How do I go about adding drives into the array and dynamically resizing it?

Thanks in advance for your help.
 
generalDo I need to format my drives for the RAID or will EVMS do this for me?[/quote said:
Maybe try it when your HDDs are not formatted. If it throws an error, it's likely that you'll need for format them
If they need to be formatted, what format should I use for them.
Click to expand...
that's a question I will leave for a Linux guru, but I heard that you do not want to run XFS if you do not have a UPS.
How do I go about adding them into a RAID array in EVMS?
Click to expand...
I think that you should be able to find an answer between:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html
and http://evms.sourceforge.net/user_guide/#appxmdreg
apparently the "md" thingy handles this (I have no clue)

I hope that I could help a bit :S
Click to expand...
 
Thanks for the help. The second tutorial was good for formatting the drives, but then the commands it uses don't work. The tutorials using the MD thing say that you can't expand an array, so I'm a little leery on using it. I'll play around with it but I'd prefer to use EVMS. There doesn't seem to be an intuitive way to set things up with it though.
 
Apparently, there is a MD plugin for EVMS. This is used to create a MD region:
http://evms.sourceforge.net/user_guide/#createmdreg
B.2. Creating an MD region
The procedure for creating a new MD region is very similar for all the different RAID levels. When using the EVMS GUI or Ncurses, first choose the ActionsCreate Region menu item. A list of region-managers will open, and each RAID level will appear as a separate plug-in in this list. Select the plug-in representing the desired RAID level. The next panel will list the objects available for creating a new RAID region. Select the desired objects to build the new region. If the selected RAID level does not support any additional options, then there are no more steps, and the region will be created. If the selected RAID level has extra creation options, the next panel will list those options. After selecting the options, the region will be created.
Click to expand...

Epanding MD regions:
http://evms.sourceforge.net/user_guide/#resizemdreg
RAID regions can be resized in order to expand or shrink the available data space in the region. Each RAID level has different characteristics, and thus each RAID level has different requirements for when and how they can expand or shrink
Click to expand...

Resizing a RAID-4/5 region follows the same rules and restrictions for resizing a RAID-0 region. Expand a RAID-4/5 region by adding one new object to the region. Shrink a RAID-4/5 region by removing up to N-1 of the current child objects in a region with N objects.
Click to expand...

now you should be on your way to getting a RAID region set up and knowing how to expand it. I think it'd be a good idea -if you have sufficient drives- to first create the smallest possible RAID-5 region and then expand it with no data on it, so that you know how to, if you need to do it in the future :)
 
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