Sebastopol, CA--RAID technology is becoming a standard feature of computer systems that support mission-critical services such as file sharing, mail exchange, and web servers. RAID offers two primary benefits to these systems: improved I/O performance and fail-safe data storage. "The data storage problem isn't going away," says Derek Vadala, author of the just-released Managing RAID on Linux (O'Reilly, US $39.95). "We're always running out of space. And, as soon as we think that a hard drive is too big to fill, we end up with something new, like MP# or DVIX. So there's a home market for RAID emerging, in addition to the need for RAID in the enterprise."
RAID is a method by which many independent disks attached to a computer can be made, from the perspective of users and applications, to appear as a single disk. As Vadala explains, this has several implications: "Performance can be dramatically improved because the bottleneck of using a single disk for all I/O is spread across more than one disk. Larger storage capacities can be achieved, since you're using multiple disks instead of a single disk. And specific disks can be used to transparently store data that can then be used to survive a disk failure."
"Managing RAID on Linux" covers everything system administrators need to know to put together a system that can support RAID. Readers will learn about the different types of RAID, along with associated technologies and issues, and how to choose the best RAID system for their needs. With a step-by-step, hands-on approach, the author covers the installation of either Linux software RAID or a hardware RAID card. The book shows how to build an array and optionally install a high-performance file system. Contents include:
- An introduction to RAID and Linux
- Planning and architecture of your RAID system
- Building a software RAID
- Software RAID tools and references
- Building a hardware RAID
- Performance and tuning of your RAID system
RAID has become the low-cost solution of choice to deal with the ever-increasing demand for data storage space. Written for system administrators, power users, tech managers, and anyone who wants to learn about RAID technology, "Managing RAID on Linux" sidesteps the often-confusing vendor-specific approach you'll find elsewhere to give you the straight story on RAID. Even non-Linux users will find this book full of valuable material.
Additional Resources:
An article by the author, mdadm: A New Tool For Linux Software RAID Management
Chapter 2, Planning and Architecture, is available free online
More information about the book, including Table of Contents, index, author bio, and samples
Managing RAID on Linux
Derek Vadala
ISBN 1-56592-730-3, 245 pages, $39.95 (US), $61.95 (CAN), 28.50 (UK)
order@oreilly.com
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