[CentOS] [OT] Building a new backup server

m.roth at 5-cent.us m.roth at 5-cent.us
Mon Nov 4 17:05:36 UTC 2013


Sorin Srbu wrote:
> Guys,
>
> I was thrown a cheap OEM-server with a 120 GB SSD and 10 x 4 TB
SATA-disks for the data-backup to build a backup server. It's built
around an Asus
Z87-A
> that seems to have problems with anything Linux unfortunately.
>
> Anyway, BackupPC is my preferred backup-solution, so I went ahead to
install another favourite, CentOS 6.4 - and failed.
>
> The raid controller is a Highpoint RocketRAID 2740 and its driver is
suggested to be prior to starting Anaconda by way of "ctrl-alt-f2", at
which point
> Anaconda freezes.
>
> I've come so far as installing Fedora 19 and having it see all the
hard-drives, but it refuses to create any partition bigger than approx.
16 TB with ext4.
>
> I've never had to deal with this big raid-arrays before and am a bit
stumped.
>
> Any hints as to where to start reading up, as well as hints on how to
proceed (another motherboard, ditto raidcontroller?), would be greatly
appreciated.

Several. First, see if you CentOS supports that card. The alternative is
to go to Highpoint's website, and look for the driver. You *might* need to
get the source and build it - I had to do that a few months ago, on an old
2260 (I think it is) card, and had to hack the source -they're *not* good
about updates. If you're lucky, they'll have a current driver or source.

Second, on our HBR's (that's a technical term - Honkin' Big RAIDS... <g>),
we use ext4, and RAID 6. Also, for about two years, I keep finding things
that say that although ext4 supports gigantic filesystems, the tools
aren't there yet. The upshot is that I make several volumes and partition
them into 14TB-16TB filesystems.

Besides, if you have a problem with a truly humongous RAID, the rebuild
will finish sometime around next summer....

        mark






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