Apptech wrote:
> He argues that RAID typically reduces reliability.
> ie done well it can be an improvement, but ... . 
>  
> Makes some sense.
> What do others think
>
>     http://www.pugetsystems.com/articles?&id=29
>   
 From his perspective i can see the downsides.
Trying to talk some monkey through rebuilding his raid array when what 
he really wants to do is play world of warcraft could be a frustrating 
experience.
On the other hand for an it pro to rebuild an array when it has gone 
splat just after he has unraveled some arcane looping bug in some 
software would be an almost relaxing task.

I know i was setting up a system for a client once, Linux Raid 1 
software with mdadm. I literally was doing a final reboot just to make 
sure everything came up the way i wanted before taking it to the clients 
site when smoke came pouring out of one of the drive bays. I happened to 
have a spare drive of the same capacity and about 10 minutes later the 
system was back up and running rebuilding the array.

The array saved be about 8 hours work that no sane backup scheme would 
have saved. (That array has been running with 0 errors,reboots or 
downtime for 445 days so far for an office of 15). They also have a 
simple backup system in place that just dumps copies of all their 
important files onto an external usb drive each night, which the 
secretary then hurls down a flight of concrete steps on her way home 
before microwaving it (well thats what i assume happens) each week. She 
seems surprised when sticky taping the housing back together didn't make 
it all work again.

Eventually i hope to upgrade them a nightly offsite backup of an image 
of their systems so they can be back up and running much faster in the 
event of a failure.
-- 
http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive
View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist