Date: Fri, 29 May 1998 19:59:14 +0200 (CEST) From: Wilko Bulte <wilko@yedi.iaf.nl> To: sbabkin@dcn.att.com Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: What to do with this thing ?! Message-ID: <199805291759.TAA00752@yedi.iaf.nl> In-Reply-To: <C50B6FBA632FD111AF0F0000C0AD71EEFF8AF1@dcn71.dcn.att.com> from "sbabkin@dcn.att.com" at "May 29, 98 10:32:50 am"
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As sbabkin@dcn.att.com wrote... > Why would anyone want an extension of this kind ? There exists > a class of paranoia requiring the master and backup > servers be located as far from each other as possible to > protect from disasters like fire. Sure, the automatic fire fighting > systems do exist but would a computer work soon after a freon > bath or covered by lots of dust from smoke generators ? Well, if you could see the amount of questions we get at my employer rest assured people *do* want these things. > The company where I worked earlier was infected by this kind of > paranoia and we had to break the high availability cluster > to break up the servers. And I know a whole class of companies > in Russia to which this paranoia is inherent. A nice solution > would be to use configuration like this: > > SCSI Ethernet SCSI > (host)=====(converter)-----(converter)=====(backup host) > | | > (disks) (disks) > mirror 1 mirror 2 > > thus having the backup host and the second copy of data > in a supposedly safe location and electrically disconnected > from the master host. > > Possible variations may include using the slave part of converter > as the disk box as well, SCSI ID/LUN translations in converter, > striping, load balancing over several Ethernet connections, > mirroring done inside the converter and so on. > > So, about 1.5 years ago I have started this project as commercial > with backup solution of converting it to non-commercial :-) > Many things occurred since then, there were lots of organizational > problems and since I came to US over half a year ago it was > in comatose state at all. Recently I bought a computer and > finally finished the working prototype. > > Since the start of project the Fibre Channel technology became > reality, absolutely superior to this project, although, may be, > a bit more expensive. And I absolutely don't know anything about the > typical paranoias in US companies. > > So, the first question is: does anybody see any commercial perspectives > for this project ? May be in the low-end server market ? May be, > for non-Unix servers ? If yes, I would like to hear any offers :-) Well, look at the website of EMC2 for example. This is viable, but it will probably only fly if there is a big organisation backing it. Wilko _ ______________________________________________________________________ | / o / / _ Bulte email: wilko @ yedi.iaf.nl |/|/ / / /( (_) Arnhem, The Netherlands WWW: http://www.tcja.nl ______________________________________________ Powered by FreeBSD __________ To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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