From owner-freebsd-questions  Fri Mar 16  9:10:50 2001
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Date: Fri, 16 Mar 2001 18:12:28 +0100
From: Christoph Sold <so@server.i-clue.de>
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To: SF <lists@stevenfettig.com>
Cc: Freebsd-Questions <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject: Re: Hot swap mount compatible with FreeBSD?
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SF schrieb:
> 
> <snip>
> > I don't understand the question. About every swap solution will work for
> > you. It's up to you to make sure the drive is not mounted the moment you
> > swap drives.
> >
> > HTH
> > -Christoph Sold
> 
> Well, I found an answer - I think - to my own question after more digging
> (sorry I didn't see this before).  FreeBSD doesn't seem to support
> hot-swapping per se.  But, the suggestion you gave of making sure the drive
> was unmounted the moment it is swapped seems to indicate that I am really in
> need of a hardware setup that will allow drives to be swapped in and out of
> the chassis (and as long as it is not mounted at that time, this should
> cause no problems with the OS) - like the way a CD-Rom disc is inserted and
> removed.  That leads me, however, back to an original question - is there
> any specific hardware that supports hot swapping (i.e. controller, rails,
> etc. from someone like Adaptec, etc) that has been used in a FreeBSD box
> successfully - I have found solutions that should work with MS machines, but
> I don't know about FreeBSD/*nix functionality?

Well, thats a different questions altogether. Yes, there is some
specification about hot-swappability -- you just cannot disconnect an
IDE bus without disturbing ongoing transfers. Thus, IDE drives a not
hot-swappable. This leaves SCSI, and the fact you have to be able to
power down the drive separately _before_ pulling it out of the bay.

Some solutions exist, but they are very hard to find. I've ordered some
parts made by Lindy in Germany about three months ago. They're not yet
here -- and I live in Germany. Seems those boxes are built on large
orders only.

For hot swapability, I'd go the IDE to SCSI Raid alley. Just one
external box allows you to plug cheap IDE drives into, and attaches via
fast SCSI to you BSD box.

HTH
-Christoph Sold

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