Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 12:32:58 -0500 From: "Brandon S. DeYoung" <brandon@schoolpeople.net> To: <freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Hardware RAID, Vinum and a (rather wacky?) idea Message-ID: <007701bff4cc$0c031ea0$82571c18@austin.rr.com>
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Hello all,
I just had an idea that I'd like to bounce of some of you which may have some insight into both the problem and my attempt at a solution.
Problem #1: Hardware/SCSI RAID is expensive.
Problem #2: Vinum (or any OS controlled soft RAID system) has serious drawbacks.
What's wrong with vinum?
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.
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?
~Brandon
...It don't mean a thing
If you cain't get that ping...
Brandon S. DeYoung
Systems Integration Manager
SchoolPeople
brandon@schoolpeople.net
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<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> Hello all,</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2> I just had an idea that I'd like
to bounce of some of you which may have some insight into both the problem and
my attempt at a solution.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Problem #1: Hardware/SCSI RAID is
expensive.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Problem #2: Vinum (or any OS controlled soft RAID
system) has serious drawbacks.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>What's wrong with vinum?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>I'm about to order a few Single Board Computer
(SBC) systems which all have sockets for an M-Systems <FONT
size=2>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.</FONT></FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>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?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>Whachya think Mike? Will this work or am I just in
need of a very long vacation?</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2>~Brandon</FONT></DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV>
<P><!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"></P><B><I><FONT
face=Georgia size=2>
<P>...It don't mean a thing <BR>If you cain't get that ping...</P></B></I>
<P>Brandon S. DeYoung </FONT><FONT face=Georgia><BR></FONT><FONT
face=Georgia size=2>Systems Integration Manager</FONT><BR></FONT><FONT
face=Georgia size=2>SchoolPeople </FONT><BR><A
href="mailto:brandon@schoolpeople.net"><FONT face=Georgia
size=2>brandon@schoolpeople.net</FONT></A><FONT face=Georgia>
</P></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial size=2><STRONG>
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