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<H2><A NAME="s1">1. Introduction</A></H2>
<P>
<!--
disk!introduction
-->
For unclear reasons this brand new release is codenamed
the <B>Taylor3</B> release.
<P>New code names will appear as per industry standard guidelines
to emphasize the state-of-the-art-ness of this document.
<P>
<P>This document was written for two reasons, mainly because I got hold
of 3 old SCSI disks to set up my Linux system on and I was pondering
how best to utilise the inherent possibilities of parallelizing in a
SCSI system. Secondly I hear there is a prize for people who write
documents...
<P>This is intended to be read in conjunction with the Linux Filesystem
Structure Standard (FSSTND). It does not in any way replace it but tries to
suggest where physically to place directories detailed in the FSSTND,
in terms of drives, partitions, types, RAID, file system (fs),
physical sizes and other parameters that should be considered and
tuned in a Linux system, ranging from single home systems to large
servers on the Internet.
<P>
<P>The followup to FSSTND is called the Filesystem Hierarchy Standard (FHS)
and covers more than Linux alone. FHS versions 2.0, 2.1 and 2.2 have been
released but there are still a few issues to be dealt with. Many recent
distributions are now aiming for FHS compliance.
<P>It is also a good idea to read the Linux Installation guides thoroughly
and if you are using a PC system, which I guess the majority still does,
you can find much relevant and useful information in the FAQs for the
newsgroup comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware especially for storage media.
<P>This is also a learning experience for myself and I hope I can start
the ball rolling with this HOWTO and that it perhaps can evolve
into a larger more detailed and hopefully even more correct HOWTO.
<P>
<P>First of all we need a bit of legalese. Recent development shows it is
quite important.
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss1.1">1.1 Copyright</A>
</H2>
<P>
<P>This document is Copyright 1996 Stein Gjoen. Permission is granted to
copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the
GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.1 or any later version
published by the Free Software Foundation with no Invariant Sections,
no Front-Cover Texts, and no Back-Cover Texts.
<P>If you have any questions, please contact &lt;{linux-howto@metalab.unc.edu}>
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss1.2">1.2 Disclaimer</A>
</H2>
<P>
<P>Use the information in this document at your own risk. I disavow any
potential liability for the contents of this document. Use of the
concepts, examples, and/or other content of this document is entirely
at your own risk.
<P>All copyrights are owned by their owners, unless specifically noted
otherwise. Use of a term in this document should not be regarded as
affecting the validity of any trademark or service mark.
<P>Naming of particular products or brands should not be seen as endorsements.
<P>You are strongly recommended to take a backup of your system before
major installation and backups at regular intervals.
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss1.3">1.3 News</A>
</H2>
<P>
<!--
disk!news on
-->
<P>This is a major upgrade featuring a new copyright statement that is
intended to be Debian compliant and allow for inclusion in their
distribution. A number of mistakes are corrected and new features
added such as descriptions of recent ATA features and more.
<P>
<P>
<P>On the development front people are concentrating their energy towards
completing Linux 2.4 and until that is released there is not going to
be much news on disk technology for Linux.
<P>
<P>Also now the document is available in postscript
both for US letter as well as European A4 formats.
<P>The latest version number of this document can be gleaned from my
plan entry if you
<A HREF="http://www.mit.edu:8001/finger?sgjoen@nox.nyx.net">finger</A> my Nyx account.
<P>Also, the latest version will be available on my web space on Nyx
in a number of formats:
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/disk.html">HTML</A>.
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/disk.txt">plain ASCII text</A> (ca. 6200 lines).
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/disk-US.ps.gz">compressed postscript US letter format</A> (ca. 90 pages).
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/disk-A4.ps.gz">compressed postscript European A4 format</A> (ca. 85 pages).
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.nyx.net/~sgjoen/disk.sgml">SGML source</A> (ca. 260 KB).</LI>
</UL>
<P>
<P>A European mirror of the
<A HREF="http://home.online.no/~ggjoeen/stein/disk.html">Multi Disk HOWTO</A>
just went on line.
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss1.4">1.4 Credits</A>
</H2>
<P>In this version I have the pleasure of acknowledging even more people
who have contributed in one way or another:
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ronnej (at ) ucs.orst.edu
cm (at) kukuruz.ping.at
armbru (at) pond.sub.org
R.P.Blake (at) open.ac.uk
neuffer (at) goofy.zdv.Uni-Mainz.de
sjmudd (at) redestb.es
nat (at) nataa.fr.eu.org
sundbyk (at) oslo.geco-prakla.slb.com
ggjoeen (at) online.no
mike (at) i-Connect.Net
roth (at) uiuc.edu
phall (at) ilap.com
szaka (at) mirror.cc.u-szeged.hu
CMckeon (at) swcp.com
kris (at) koentopp.de
edick (at) idcomm.com
pot (at) fly.cnuce.cnr.it
earl (at) sbox.tu-graz.ac.at
ebacon (at) oanet.com
vax (at) linkdead.paranoia.com
tschenk (at) theoffice.net
pjfarley (at) dorsai.org
jean (at) stat.ubc.ca
johnf (at) whitsunday.net.au
clasen (at) unidui.uni-duisburg.de
eeslgw (at) ee.surrey.asc.uk
adam (at) onshore.com
anikolae (at) wega-fddi2.rz.uni-ulm.de
cjaeger (at) dwave.net
eperezte (at) c2i.net
yesteven (at) ms2.hinet.net
cj (at) samurajdata.se
tbotond (at) netx.hu
russel (at) coker.com.au
lars (at) iar.se
GALLAGS3 (at) labs.wyeth.com
morimoto (at) xantia.citroen.org
shulegaa (at) gatekeeper.txl.com
roman.legat (at) stud.uni-hannover.de
ahamish (at) hicks.alien.usr.com
hduff2 (at) worldnet.att.net
mbaehr (at) email.archlab.tuwien.ac.at
adc (at) postoffice.utas.edu.au
pjm (at) bofh.asn.au
jochen.berg (at) ac.com
jpotts (at) us.ibm.com
jarry (at) gmx.net
LeBlanc (at) mcc.ac.uk
masy (at) webmasters.gr.jp
karlheg (at) hegbloom.net
goeran (at) uddeborg.pp.se
wgm (at) telus.net
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
<P>
<P>
<P>
<P>
<H2><A NAME="ss1.5">1.5 Translations</A>
</H2>
<P>
<P>Special thanks go to <CODE>nakano (at) apm.seikei.ac.jp</CODE> for doing the
<A HREF="http://www.linux.or.jp/JF/JFdocs/Multi-Disk-HOWTO.html">Japanese translation</A>,
general contributions as well as contributing an example of
a computer in an academic setting, which is included at the end of this
document.
<P>There are now many new translations available and special thanks go
to the translators for the job and the input they have given:
<P>
<UL>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/">German Translation</A> by <CODE>chewie (at) nuernberg.netsurf.de</CODE>
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.swe-doc.linux.nu">Swedish Translation </A> by <CODE>jonah (at) swipnet.se</CODE>
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.lri.fr/~loisel/howto/">French Translation</A> by <CODE>Patrick.Loiseleur (at) lri.fr</CODE>
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.linuxdoc.org/">Chinese Translation</A> by <CODE>yesteven (at ) ms2.hinet.net</CODE>
</LI>
<LI>
<A HREF="http://www.pluto.linux.it/ildp/HOWTO/Multi-Disk-HOWTO.html">Italian Translation</A> by <CODE>bigpaul (at) flashnet.it</CODE></LI>
</UL>
<P>
<P>ICP Vortex is gratefully acknowledges for sending in-depth information
on their range of RAID controllers.
<P>Also DPT is acknowledged for sending me documentation on their controllers
as well as permission to quote from the material. These quotes have been
approved before appearing here and will be clearly labelled. No quotes as
of yet but that is coming.
<P>Not many still, so please read through this document, make a contribution
and join the elite. If I have forgotten anyone, please let me know.
<P>New in this version is an appendix with a few tables you can fill in
for your system in order to simplify the design process.
<P>Any comments or suggestions can be mailed to my mail address on Nyx:
<A HREF="mailto:sgjoen@nyx.net/">sgjoen@nyx.net</A>.
<P>
<P>So let's cut to the chase where <CODE>swap</CODE> and <CODE>/tmp</CODE> are
racing along hard drive...
<P>
<P>
<P>
<P>
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