I’m running a node getting decent volume on my Start9 Pro…. The hardware doesn’t seem rate limiting. What would a raid1 setup improve for lightning?
Discussion
Better uptime for one. Prevents catastrophic data loss. When one drive fails you don't need to do the initial block download from scratch. All blockchain data is copied to the new drive automatically when you swap the failed one.
All hard drives have a 100% failure rate. It's just a matter of time. I don't want to lose all of my channels because they disk dies.
Just setup 3 or more nodes. If one dies, just start over and copy the data over
I’m not sure you actually need a raid tho. All you really need is to save your channel state backup file to more then one spot?
Do you actually need blockchain info in both spots? Would help get you back up and running quicker I suppose… I do keep two copies of the chain through separate devices myself….
Most pi’s have two usb ports, you could just keep the blockchain and most information on one, and use another for just saving backup channel info? This way one isn’t being written to as often. Can always get the blockchain from other nodes, and your channel backup on separate drive gets you get things going again if that one fails. Odds of both failing at same time are low…
Raids can be pricey
A Linux software raid is free, I'm not going to buy a PERC 🫠
Oh phew. Still not sure you actually need to double the blockchain data, you just need to point the channel backup save directory to a separate disk
Soft raid doesn't do a checksum of the data. It will likely save you from HDD failure but, it won't from an unlucky HDD error. Plus while waiting for resynchronisation you will have just a single copy and will be super vulnerable. I am second for backups. Preferably more than one. Raid is not a backup.
Trust me. I have no idea how to run a node but I hoard many TB of photos and for years I didn't lose anything. I use raid1 sometimes for things I don't really care to lose but I would prefer to avoid it.