From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 25 11:08:49 2003 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2A84D37B401 for ; Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:08:49 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.advantagecom.net (mail.advantagecom.net [65.103.151.155]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2504C43FF3 for ; Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:08:47 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from andykinney@advantagecom.net) Received: from SCSI-MONSTER (scsi-monster.advantagecom.net [207.109.186.200]) by mail.advantagecom.net (8.11.6/8.11.6) with ESMTP id h3PI8jF11076; Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:08:45 -0700 From: "Andrew Kinney" Organization: Advantagecom Networks, Inc. To: Fred Clift Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 11:07:40 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-transfer-encoding: 7BIT Message-ID: <3EA916FC.18900.783D3268@localhost> Priority: normal References: <3EA8F430.11277.77B4EF97@localhost> In-reply-to: <20030425095350.I69705-100000@vespa.dmz.orem.verio.net> X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Win32 (v3.12c) cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Subject: Re: dump routine for mlx devices X-BeenThere: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: andykinney@advantagecom.net List-Id: Technical Discussions relating to FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 25 Apr 2003 18:08:49 -0000 On 25 Apr 2003, at 9:56, Fred Clift wrote: > You wouldn't necessarily have to use the disk for swap space - just > set it up as your dump device, but dont use it for swap at all. That thought had crossed my mind briefly, but then it was wisked away with the (apparently) mistaken belief that the dumpdev needed to be mounted as swap for the kernel to be able to access it at the time of the crash. That belief has changed in the face of contrary truth. I think I see now why no one cares whether or not they can dump to a RAID. If the IDE device isn't in use by the system except in the case of a crash, who cares if the device fails? You might get some weird error messages, but the system shouldn't panic unless you do something wacked (like 'swapon /dev/broken-device') with the hardware after it has failed. Of course, you still have to eventually take the system down and remove/replace the broken device, which is something I *don't* have to do if one of the physical drives backing my mlx RAID goes bad. Thanks for the response, Fred. It made things instantly clear for me. Sincerely, Andrew Kinney President and Chief Technology Officer Advantagecom Networks, Inc. http://www.advantagecom.net