Re: [tlug] auto-shutdown at certain temp, testing, and CF boot

[Joe Larabell <fred62@???>]

> > This may go without saying and may not be relevant here, but I feel it's
> > a good idea on a Raid 1 to mirror the boot partitions also.
>
> You should do the same with a raid 5, but I you will need to let it
> rebuild in-between each drive removal.  The alternative to boot
> partition mirroring is to use a compact flash IDE device to boot off.
> This can have the added advantage of hardware write protection.

Maybe I'm missing something. If you're booting the machine from a CF
device, you don't even need the boot partition, much less one that's
mirrored. So what does having /boot on the mirrored array do besides
add complexity to an otherwise fragile process?

Also, how do you protect the machine from a failed CF card?

If one were going to reserve a small slice of one disk as a non-redundant
/boot, why not do the same for all three disks. Have a cron job copy the
stuff from one to the others every night (/boot doesn't change very often)
and if the disk from which you normally boot goes CompletelySouth(tm), you
should be able to swap some cables around and get the machine to boot from
one of the remaining good disks (or issue a manual boot command to grub to
read the MBR from one of the other disks).

Would it not be just as good to make emergency boot floppies (CDs) every
time you re-install the kernel? I'm not sure what a redundant /boot buys,
given that the machine can't read it until *after* it has already booted.

---
Joseph L (Joe) Larabell            Never fight with a dragon
http://larabell.org                     for thou art crunchy
                                  and goest well with cheese.