From owner-freebsd-hardware Mon Jul 24 4: 9: 6 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from gabriel.schoolpeople.net (gabriel.schoolpeople.net [216.34.170.167]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4F41737B719; Mon, 24 Jul 2000 04:09:02 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from brandon@schoolpeople.net) Received: from triangulata (cs2887-130.austin.rr.com [24.28.87.130]) by gabriel.schoolpeople.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id GAA17603; Mon, 24 Jul 2000 06:08:58 -0500 (CDT) (envelope-from brandon@schoolpeople.net) Message-ID: <002a01bff560$30ed8040$82571c18@austin.rr.com> From: "Brandon S. DeYoung" To: "Mike Smith" Cc: References: <200007232109.OAA17060@mass.osd.bsdi.com> Subject: Re: Hardware RAID, Vinum and a (rather wacky?) idea Date: Mon, 24 Jul 2000 06:13:26 -0500 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.00.2919.6600 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2919.6600 Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Thanks Mike, I guess I should always check your dev journal before posting anything about RAID, it had been at least 4 days since I looked at it. ;-) ~Brandon ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Smith" To: "Brandon S. DeYoung" Cc: Sent: Sunday, July 23, 2000 4:09 PM Subject: Re: Hardware RAID, Vinum and a (rather wacky?) idea > > If I understand it correctly. When using vinum, the / partition cannot = > > be in the array. This means that if you lose the disk which has the = > > kernel on it you're forced into using a rescue floppy or something like = > > it to recover data if the system crashes when the drive fails. > > Actually, Greg has tweaked things so that you can put / on a Vinum array. > The problem is that your boot path up to the mount of / needs to be > reliable, and that means BIOS support. > > > I'm about to order a few Single Board Computer (SBC) systems which all = > > have sockets for an M-Systems DiskOnChip (DOC) Solid State Disk. I was = > > thinking that if the DOC is supported by FreeBSD, I could buy a 32MB = > > solid state disk, mount the / partition there. Then mirror all the other = > > partitions (except swap) with vinum on a couple cheap yet huge IDE = > > drives. > > > > Hot swap? I remember reading a posting a while back in which the writer = > > claimed that if he unmounted an IDE drive first it could be removed from = > > the system without causing any problems. I've been too scared to try = > > this yet, is it accurate? > > > > Whachya think Mike? Will this work or am I just in need of a very long = > > vacation? > > IDE hotswap (particularly if you swap in a disk that's not an *exact* > replacement for the disk you took out) is a bit dodgy. If you have a PCI > slot, I would recommend looking at 3ware's new 6x00 series controllers. > ATA-66, hotswap, reliable bootpath, cheap, etc. The 5x00 controllers are > even cheaper, but don't do hotswap. > > > -- > ... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his > rivals and unfortunately opponents also. But not because people want > to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force > people to take different points of view. [Dr. Fritz Todt] > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message