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I've created a RAID1 array in LVM (lvcreate -m1 --type raid1....). The system is unattended, so I would now like a notification email if one of the disks fail. I could probably write a cron job to continually check the status of the volume. However, this seems like basic functionality for a raid array.
What is the best way to monitor an unattended LVM RAID or mirror? The only choices for raid_fault_policy in lvm.conf are warn (log) and allocate. Sendmail is already setup and working.
I really wanted to manage my disks with one tool. However, after a few experiments and some searching I have come to the conclusion that lvm raid is too new and not ready for my use yet. The documentation is lacking, there is no active monitoring, logging is incomplete (I see failure logs, but no recovery logs) and the lv/vg status and display commands do not clearly show degredations.
(If someone wants to refute my conclusions, please do!)
For now I'll be using mdadm for RAID and lvm for space management. lvm still looks very promising. I'll probably try again in about a year.
Edit: After setting up RAID1 with mdadm, I realised I have no use for lvm because I am creating a single volume. If it grows, I'll have to grow the raid anyway, so there lvm would just add additional steps. So, I'm handling my disks with one tool which is what I originally wanted. Note that this won't apply to those who want to distribute the raid across multiple volumes.
I was in a similar situation and smartmontools was my solution. There are numerous tutorials and much info on Google. I receive emails when my disks fail.
