[CentOS] A question about RAID and partitions

[Les Mikesell]

Miguel Medalha wrote:
> Perhaps I am wrong but I feel that my question didn't receive an answer 
> yet; the discussion digressed a bit.
> So, let me rephrase my question:
> 
> Which one is better, RAID devices created on top of partitions or 
> partitions created on top of RAID devices?

With software raid you create partitions on the disk, then combine them 
into md devices.  With hardware raid the controller usually combines 
drives into arrays which you can subdivide into volumes that linux will 
see as a disk.

> By "better" I mean under the aspects of data security, performance and 
> ability to recover from a disk crash.

I'm not sure there is an answer to that.  You just need to understand 
the procedure to replace a failed drive.

  >> I am about to begin the installation of a small server (no more than
>> 20 users), using CentOS with Samba to authenticate Windows XP 
>> workstations. A question arises about the organization of the 
>> filesystem. I hope that more experienced and knowledgeable users here 
>> will be able to give me some precious advice.
>>
>> I have 2 120GB SATA disks on which to install the OS. I want to create 
>> the following partitions:
>>
>> /boot
>> /
>> /tmp
>> /var
>> /home
>> /swap
>>
>> Two options are now present to me:
>>
>> - Create a single RAID 1 device with both entire disks and then 
>> partition on top
>> - Create several RAID devices, one for each partition (md0, md1, md2 
>> and so forth)
>>
>> Which one would be better from the points of view of performance, 
>> security and data recoverability?

The latter is the way the installer will let you do it.

-- 
   Les Mikesell
    lesmikesell at gmail.com