Re: [tlug] White Box: Some Assembly Required ...

[CL <az.4tlug@example.com>]

On 06/28/2018 12:22 PM, Curt Sampson wrote:
> On 2018-06-22 23:39 +0900 (Fri), CL wrote:
>
> > - Six Toshiba 3Tb HDDs, which I want to use to make a hardware RAID 5
> > long-term storage disk.
> Don't do it. I've worked with a lot of hardware RAID systems (more in
> the '90s than now) and the cheap systems, by which I mean
> sub-$100,000, have invariably been less reliable and had more problems
> than good software RAID such as is currently available in the Linux
> kernel.
>
> This isn't so suprising, really, considering:
>
> 1. Linux kernel RAID has probably seen hundreds to thousands of times
>     as much testing as any on-motherboard hardware RAID system.
>
> 2. The lack of flexability (e.g., not being able to pull your disks
>     and drop them into another system) can really hurt your chances of
>     recovery when things start to go sideways.

All:


(First: Apologies if I left too much of Curt's message. I thought he 
raised many good points that grb and inverse also echoed.)

The software RAID 5 is operational in it's Mk. 3.0 version.  The first 
one didn't start as I failed to note that when "cat /proc/mdstat" ends 
its report with "unused devices: <none>" it doesn't mean that all of the 
"used devices" are now ready to go, it means that mdadm is working with 
all of them and may or may not have completed ... and it hadn't.  It 
hides the "work in progress" bar in the middle of the multi-line 
report.  So, first time out, I closed and saved an unformatted RAID.

I had to issue a "chmod rw" (or something similar) to make the RAID R/W 
capable and I am copying files over as I am writing this.

QUESTION:

Right now, Lubuntu "sees" the RAID as folder /dev/md0 in the directory 
tree.  I can view it as a disk in GParted, where I can give it a unique 
name, and in the "Disks" accessory in Lubuntu.

Since I am not the only person who will play back the files contained 
there, I was wondering how to make the RAID appear on the desktop as an 
HDD icon that opens as a directory when clicked.  When I incorrectly 
saved the incomplete RAID in Attempt One, a disk name and icon were 
shown on the desktop and I would like to have that back for the 
convenience of the less PC savvy user in the household.

OTHER STUFF:

As noted from the beginning, this machine is nothing fancy and nothing 
I'd want to bring close to my work PCs.  It is a media server for the 
family saved TV and movie stuff.  We'd gone for many years using 
repurposed work HDDs and externals and underwent a massive storage 
die-off last Summer that left absolutely no recourse.  Refusing to pay 
twice for most of the losses, I decided to bring everything remaining 
into one box and build a RAID for the non-immediate offerings and get 
rid of the growing pile of mismatched attached external media in the 
bookcase that was beginning to resemble a Brazilian favela on a Sao 
Paolo hillside.

If this works out well, I will use it as the blueprint to build a larger 
home-office machine, using top quality server-grade hardware instead of 
the "not commercial" level of the current hardware.  I'll use it for 
on-site storage of the scanned copies of all of the legal projects I 
have worked on and I have access to both AWD ad one other large-array 
cloud storage solutions through professional association memberships.

Unfortunately, one of the greatest losses from the house fire was the 
hose jockeys soaking down fourteen cardboard legal file boxes and 
turning 25 years of stored case files into 800kg of soggy pulp, leaving 
me with only the HDDs I'd filled with copies of what I submitted to the 
group(s) but not many of the final submissions. Fortunately, I was able 
to beg, borrow, and steal the past five years' worth of completed 
submissions from other people.

CL