Thanks Andrew, Drives are in and Ubuntu 18.04 is installing, I am offered an LVM option will that mess with RAID? One other thing, will choosing btrfs orZFS just utilise the matched drives as a RAID pair? If I go XFS, as my file system for all drives, then will I need the install to complete, then run mdadm to set the RAID? I am so glad I am fresh for this. Regards Andrew Greig On 20/05/18 00:21, Andrew Pam wrote:
On 20/05/18 00:04, Andrew Greig via luv-main wrote:
What should I do about partitioning? Should I use hard partitions say, 20Gb for the /root, should I use a /boot partition or just use the MBR? You don't really need a separate /boot partition any more unless you have an older BIOS that can only boot from the first part of the drive.
Is mdadm a part of this process or does it get involved later ? ZFS for the pair of drives? If you use ZFS or btrfs, you probably don't want to use mdadm (software RAID) as well. Better to take advantage of the filesystem-level mirroring. If you use another filesystem (such as XFS, which is what I use on my 4T RAID-1 mirror on my desktop workstation) you will need to install and set up mdadm first, yes.
Do I have to jump through hoops in Ubuntu to watch an MP4 or a Matroska video? Not if you select the "use third-party proprietary drivers and codecs" checkbox during the install - note that it's off by default, though. Or you can install VLC, which should come with all the codes you need.
Hope that helps, Andrew