[K12OSN] backup question

[Robert Arkiletian]

On 6/19/05, Les Mikesell <les at futuresource.com> wrote:
> I guess it's time to plug backuppc again.
> http://backuppc.sourceforge.net/  will automatically collect
> backups over the network, compress them, and link all duplicates
> whether from different machines or different runs of the same
> machine to save space.

I will look into backuppc. I like the advantage of having multiple
backup images that are saved incrementally. Nice if your system gets
borked and you do a backup without knowing it. In that case a simple
rsync will do more harm than good.

> 
> /boot should normally be a small separate partition - and must be
> if you want the rest in software RAID or LVM.   Keeping /home
> on it's own partition (or NFS-mounted from another machine)
> often allows you to install a new OS version without losing
> much data.

Since I am starting from scratch I have given RAID a lot of thought.
Here is my current thinking:

Can't do hardware raid- no more funds this year
Have heard Software RAID is robust/easy:

Only have 2 disks so no RAID 5 (sucks anyways-  too slow)
RAID 1 : Since I have an external backup not too worried about
redundancy. If I lose a drive then I go buy another one, restore, and
I'm up within  a day or two. Acceptable.

So here is my dilemma:
Option #1: RAID 0 with my dual channel controller

pros
faster (not sure how much though)

cons
lose one lose both
I think I may lose the benefit of hardware scsi tcq (not sure)
eats cpu cycles

Option #2: stick /boot and / on one disk/controller and /home on the other

pros
separate launching/running apps from /home traffic
no software RAID to mess with (simpler restore)

cons
?

Which option would you take #1 or #2?
-- 
Robert Arkiletian
C++ GUI tutorial http://fltk.org/links.php?V19