From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 5 09:29:24 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id F07F716A40F for ; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 09:29:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jonathan@hst.org.za) Received: from sirian.hst.org.za (sirian.hst.org.za [209.203.2.130]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8175A43D45 for ; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 09:29:22 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from jonathan@hst.org.za) Received: from localhost (localhost.hst.org.za [127.0.0.1]) by sirian.hst.org.za (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2D9B531C87E for ; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 11:30:38 +0200 (SAST) Received: from sirian.hst.org.za ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (sirian.hst.org.za [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 84201-02 for ; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 11:30:38 +0200 (SAST) Received: by sirian.hst.org.za (Postfix, from userid 1004) id E788D31C7FF; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 11:30:37 +0200 (SAST) Received: from sysadmin.int.dbn.hst.org.za (sysadmin.int.dbn.hst.org.za [10.1.1.20]) by sirian.hst.org.za (Postfix) with ESMTP id B119931C841 for ; Thu, 5 Oct 2006 11:30:36 +0200 (SAST) From: Jonathan McKeown Organization: Health Systems Trust To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Date: Thu, 5 Oct 2006 11:31:09 +0200 User-Agent: KMail/1.7.2 References: <200610051034.35795.jonathan@hst.org.za> <200610051056.52744.jonathan@hst.org.za> <200610050900.k9590TSJ011483@banyan.cs.ait.ac.th> In-Reply-To: <200610050900.k9590TSJ011483@banyan.cs.ait.ac.th> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline Message-Id: <200610051131.10157.jonathan@hst.org.za> X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.61 (1.212.2.1-2003-12-09-exp) on sirian.hst.org.za X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-4.4 required=7.0 tests=BAYES_00, REMOVE_REMOVAL_2WORD autolearn=no version=2.61 X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at hst.org.za Subject: Re: Removing removable ATA hard drives X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 05 Oct 2006 09:29:25 -0000 On Thursday 05 October 2006 11:00, Olivier Nicole wrote: [Power down a drive bay using its built-in keyswitch and pull the disk without dropping the whole box] > Unless you need to move that disk from one machine to another, fix it > in your server, keep the tray for future testing when you will have > more time... (if we ever have more time in the present life :) I should probably have said: we don't currently have offsite backups (we've exceeded the capacity of our tape device and our budget), and the quick-fix solution is dumping to this hard drive and then pulling it out and taking it home. As such the removability is key to its intended function. I can't keep dropping the main fileserver to fiddle with it, and the alternative in terms of testing is to set up another box with the particular 4.9-STABLE snapshot running on this server (to eliminate OS version-related variable effects). I'm hoping some kind person here will save me the trouble by saying, from experience, either ``yes, you're on the right track but you need to do x, y and z before pulling/replacing the drive cassette'', or ``no, run away screaming before your server room goes down in flames''. Jonathan