I agree with Adam except I do like a separate root volume as it makes life much easier for all the reasons he mentioned. It is a huge waste of space unless you can convince the customer to purchase 3 9 gig drives, 2 for root 1 for parity in addition to their other storage requirements. You don't waste as much space that way and just maybe the customer may buy an extra shelf with only 3 bays occupied which could accommodate 4 more drives at a future point in time.
-Paul
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Paul E. Marchand
Network Appliance ~ Systems Engineer
fast simple reliable
marchand(a)netapp.com
408.822.3213 415.793.8881(cell)
-----Original Message-----
From: Fox, Adam [mailto:Adam.Fox@netapp.com]
Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 9:54 AM
To: 'neil lehrer'; toasters
Subject: RE: boot volume with no data
Okay, I've heard lots of debates on this, here's my opinion
and I'm sure others will disagree.
I'm not a big fan of root-only volumes. I think that overall
they are a big waste of space for very little gain. However,
there are some good reasons to do it depending on your scenario.
1. SnapMirror. If you are SnapMirroring all of your data then
it is a good idea to have your root volume on a separate volume.
This allows you to offline your data volumes at will which is good
for initial transfers or resynching back to a source.
2. SnapRestore. If your application or dataset makes regular use
of SnapRestore..yes I've seen this in a case where customers like
to snapshot a known good dataset, have their users mess with it, then
SnapRestore back to the known good dataset afterwards. If this is
your scenario, then yes, a root volume is a good idea.
3. Lots of vol copy'ing. If you do lots of vol copy commands in your
dataset, then for the same reason as SnapMirror, the offline ability
is a good one.
There may be others out there in the world, but these are the most
common. But in my opinion, for the 50-60MB that /etc typically takes
up, is it worth dedicating 2 36GB or 72GB drives? Maybe so, but most
of my customers don't think so.
Just one geek's opinion. There isn't really a single right or wrong
answer on this one.
-- Adam Fox
NetApp Professional Services, NC
adamfox(a)netapp.com
> -----Original Message-----
> From: neil lehrer [mailto:nlehrer@ibb.gov]
> Sent: Tuesday, August 14, 2001 11:56 AM
> To: toasters
> Subject: boot volume with no data
>
>
> are there any particular advantages or disadvantages to just
> having ontap on
> vol0 and data on other volumes?
> --
>
>
> regards
>