[wellylug] Computer System Vendor Wgtn

[Cliff Pratt]

Phillip Hutchings wrote:
> On 4/20/07, Cliff Pratt <enkidu at cliffp.com> wrote:
>> Jethro Carr wrote:
>> >
>> > But software raid is great, so it makes more sense just to use that.
>> >
>> You are joking, aren't you? If I see just one more "bad superblock"....
> 
> Hardware raid is a real pain, if the card dies you have to replace it
> with the exact same card to have any real hope of recovering your
> data.
 >
Well, going by the HP hardware I've used, this is not a problem. They 
seem to be backwards compatible.
 >
 > So you have to buy a spare or two, or just hope that it won't
> die at an inconvenient time. Software raid is much easier, replace the
> faulty parts, get the kernel drivers compiled for whatever changes
> you've made, and your system is back.
> 
> Getting the raid running that quickly sure beats restoring from backups.
> 
I don't believe that reloading a software RAID is quicker. Firstly, you 
have to install the Operating System on the first disk, then you have to 
partition and format the second disk (assuming RAID 1 for the moment), 
then you have to copy all the data to the second disk, then you have to 
build the RAID, which writes the superblocks on the disk. Then you have 
to reboot.

Once you have a pristine software RAID, then and only then can you 
install stuff on it. And hope like hell it doesn't throw a superblock 
error five minutes after it is all installed.

With a hardware RAID you just connect to the build server and load 
everything on, 15 - 20 minutes, tops. No superblock errors, failures are 
  notified to me if they do happen and you just pop a disk out and pop a 
new one in. Trying doing that with software RAID!

Cheers,

Cliff