Need an opinion...

[NoDoze]

Setting up Zimbra for the first time...
CentOS 5, ZCSOSE

I have an 80GB HD for the OS, and a 1TB RAID2.

I originally was going to load the OS and ZCS on the 80GB, then have the 1TB for email storage... but then found out that ZCSOSE doesn't have storage management

So now I'm thinking, load the OS on the 80GB, and load ZCSOSE on the 1TB, possible?

Or can I load the OS and ZCS on the 80GB and have the /opt directory on the 1TB, possible?

Is it even possible to load ZCS on a mounted drive? I've done it before with other programs....

Which would be the best scenario? or can you recommend a better option?

Thanks!

[Klug]

Welcome to the forum.

What do you call "RAID2" ?

You can setup your system on the 80 HD (but you should have a RAID1 for it) and mount the terabyte as /opt before installing Zimbra on it (but you'll need RAID1 at least for it).

If you only have a single 80GB harddrive for system and a 1TB RAID1 next to it, I'd rather remove the single HD and setup system+Zimbra on the terabyte.

[NoDoze]

Opps...sorry I meant RAID 1, yes

Yes, I was thinking the 80GB HD with the OS, and the ZCS on the 1TB RAID1... But you think it wouldn't be very efficent?

I know majority of storage is in the /opt directory, and I know ZCS would still need to access the MySQL DBs... So that would mean the storage would be on the /opt 1TB, and the MySQL would be on the 80GB... this is why it'll be unefficent? Am I thinking correct?

Perhaps load ZCS and OS on the 1TB but make it a RAID5...? Hmmm....

What would be more efficent....?

BTW this is a dual xeon quad core with 4GB DDR2 MONSTER! hehe

[NoDoze]

So....can anyone tell me if I'm correct in my thinking?
- That's it's better to have the OS and ZCS together on the same HD because ZCS needs/uses both the opt and MySQL Databases?

[dijichi2]

you seem to be a bit confused between filesystems and databases here. if this is for a company, I suggest you look a bit further into planning and the consequences of your various options before you launch ahead and commit to a particular system design.

zimbra by default lives almost entirely in /opt/zimbra. If your 1tb is RAID1, it makes most sense to mount this on /opt and use it for zimbra. Protect zimbra. You say you have 80gb for the OS, presumably this is 80gb RAID1? Your OS should be mirrored as well, if it isn't it's not a disaster, just means in the event of a disk crash that takes out your OS you will have to recover from tape or install from scratch but your core zimbra should still be intact on the 1tb array. zimbra mysql is builtin in that it installs and uses its own version also contained within /opt/zimbra. almost without exception it is better to separate zimbra (/opt) and the OS.

BTW even in the OS version it is possible to locate zimbra stores (volumes) wherever you want on the filesystem, ie outside of /opt.

[NoDoze]

Yes, I am confused, which is why I'm trying to find clarity here before I start this project...

So it looks the OS on the single HD, then the /opt on the TB is the way to go.
I have no problem reloading the OS in the case it dies, I have a local mirror so it's quick. As long as ZCS can be up and running as soon as the OS is restored.

Thanks for the info

[dijichi2]

Just to note, there are a couple of things that live outside of /opt, just to make things easier for you

Off the top of my head:
/var/spool/cron/crontabs/zimbra
/etc/sudoers

/etc/passwd
/etc/group
/etc/shadow
(these last three have entries for zimbra, postfix, postdrop at least)

You might want to back these up somehow onto /opt, for instance write a script to copy these nightly to /opt/zimbra/system.backup or something like that.

[NoDoze]

Great info! Thanks!