Subj : Re: ATA Raid under Linux? To : Angus McLeod From : Sniper Date : Tue Jul 26 2005 22:52:00 -=> Angus McLeod wrote to Tracker1 <=- AM> Re: Re: ATA Raid under Linux? AM> By: Tracker1 to Angus McLeod on Mon Jul 25 2005 00:14:00 > Angus McLeod wrote: > > We had two Seagate Baracudas go in a big, external RAID unit that cost > > something like $30K. Our DDS2 backups were faulty, so we *had* to > > rejuvenate the rank, no matter what it cost. > > Yeah, it's funny when people don't consider that.. I backup most stuff to > another system, so that I can recover quicker in the short term.. main > webserver down, setup backup to serve until the main is backup, same for db > etc... not a live redundancy, but enough to cut down time a bit... AM> Well, after that particular incident, I was given the go-ahead to build AM> a machine specifically for doing backups. We had our production AM> databases each in a slice of the RAID cabinet. I duplicated these AM> slices on the new backup box, and periodically did a "cold backup" of AM> the entire slice onto the other machine. Then the backed up slices AM> were tar'd and gzip'd, so I had twelve days worth of backups available, AM> and the latest one not archived. In the event of a database loss the AM> idea was to mount the backed-up slice via NFS and be running again AM> ASAP. > Yeah, I can't beleive anyone would spend *THAT* much for PATA technology > compared to scsi, and more recently sata.. it simply crosses the line, thoug > PATA drives are typically in much bigger sizes available, so that may have > something to do with it. AM> Again, depends WHO and WHAT is doing it. I'd not buy into a big SCSI AM> array for home use. I'd buy two IDE disks and go with a simple mirror AM> (using software RAID). My cost would be only the drives themselves, AM> which would be low buck-per-bit in comparison. But the Linux Software AM> RAID implementation *will* support hot-swap if you feel like spending AM> the cash for the apropriate IDE or SCSI units. And the Hot-Spare AM> option is perfectly viable with low-cost IDE. AM> SATA does make the whole problem moot, though, don't ya think? :-) Actually, there are relatively cheap IDE-Raid 0, 1, 5, 10, JBOD cards out there. Right now I'm looking at a $89 dollar (US) card (1), that does 4 IDE drives in any configuration. There are cards ranging from about $80 to over $300, that do both IDE and SATA. Basically, 8 drives, 4 IDE and 4 SATA drives in any configuration you want. And from being in the business for a long time, the price is alot cheaper than the old SCSI Raid days... The SCSI Raid card and the expensive ass SCSI drives... Let alone if you get the hotswap backplane and drives... Mucho Dinero! Oh, and another point... most of these cards can do hot swap. Another point... I have found some really neat little add-on's... a 3 or 4 drive bay backplane (2) that fits into 2 or 3 (5 1/4) slots, with hot swappable IDE and or SATA trays. Not to shabby on the prices either... $80's for the 3 drive bays and $100 for the 4 drive's. http://www.newegg.com (1) "Computer Hardware/Accessories/Hard Drive - Raid Cards". (2) "Computer Hardware/Accessories/Hard Drive Accessories". Sniper Killed In Action BBS, telnet://kiabbs.org Home of the Unofficial SynchroNet Support Network. download the info pack at any of the below sites: http://www.chcomputer.net/USSNET.ZIP or http://www.ussnet.org .... For sale - Large hourglass for timing Windows --- MultiMail/Linux v0.45 þ Synchronet þ Killed In Action - telnet://kiabbs.org .