[ale] Topic ideas for November meeting

[Lightner, Jeff]

I totally disagree.   Partitioning is only "simple" in initial setup.   When you want to add space to a partition that has stuff beyond it you have to resize everything.   

With LVM:
a)  You can resize individual LVs without adjusting other LVs (assuming you have free space).
b)  You can add new PVs to extend the size of the VG without having to redo anything.   

With RAID levels beyond 0 you don't lose data due to one failed disk.

Of course both RAID and LVM allow you to use partitions as members but you can also do whole disks.


-----Original Message-----
From: ale-bounces at ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces at ale.org] On Behalf Of Steve Litt
Sent: Monday, November 02, 2015 5:29 PM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] Topic ideas for November meeting

On Mon, 2 Nov 2015 22:00:47 +0000
"Lightner, Jeff" <JLightner at dsservices.com> wrote:

> Maybe a presentation on why to use (or not use) simple partitioning 
> vs. metadisk software RAID vs. LVM.

I wish I could be there. I'd argue for simplicity (simple partitioning)
*unless* a disk crash would totally ruin your day (in which case RAID) or if there's some reason that every year or so you can't resize partitions (probably on a newer, larger disk that will be available by that time), in which case of course you should use LVM.

>From what I understand (I'll probably be corrected on this), the easiest way to encrypt disk content is with LVM, so that would be a use case for LVM too.

I guess what I'm saying is this: If one doesn't need the benefits bestowed by RAID, nor the benefits bestowed by LVM, then use simple partitioning. It's simpler. It leads to simpler initramfs. It's very robust if you use a good one. I use Ext4, and it never lets me down, and it has all the fixit tools you need. And if something goes wrong, you can pop in a System Rescue CD and ship the data over the wire to another computer, or send it to another disk.

Another debate, within simple partitioning, might be Ext4 vs btrfs vs zfs. I'd love to listen to *that* debate.

SteveT

Steve Litt
October 2015 featured book: Thriving in Tough Times http://www.troubleshooters.com/thrive

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