[ale] RAID, IDE and/or Linux

[Keith Hopkins]

David Corbin wrote:
> I'm contemplating setting up a "big file server" to act as storage for 
> all my "personal critical data".  This will include source control for 
> home projects, digital pictures, ripped CDs, digitized audio, and 
> perhaps even some video eventually - other stuff too, I'm sure.. 
> Naturally, the server will run Linux. Because of the great volume of 
> data that will not be replaceable, I'm contemplating a RAID solution. 
> This is for "backup and reliability", rather than for "speed".  I am not 
> so silly to think that this server will survive the rest of my life as 
> is, however it is my intent that this be a place to be data I wish to 
> keep the rest of my life.   However, I don't want to spend "lots" of 
> time administrating it, or doing maintenance every week.
> 
> The question for you folks is, what experiences do you have with Linux 
> doing RAID, or an IDE RAID controller that I can benefit from?
> 
> One thing I'm concerned about, is what happens when 2 years down the 
> road, one drive fails-  First, do I find out about this failure 
> immediately.  Second, what if I can't find an exact replacement for the 
> dead drive. 
> There is an implied issue here.  If this data is that important to me, 
> I'll want to periodically make a copy for offsite.  To me, the best way 
> to do that these days is on another drive.  Is there a viable RAID 
> solution that will let me do this?  Can I have "3 equal drives", one of 
> which is only there occaisionally?
> 
> Thoughts and comments please.

If you are going IDE, and wanted the max in safety, I would suggest using TWO pci-ide controllers (non-RAID, or RAID0/striping), and use software RAID1/mirroring across them.  That way you can protect yourself and have any easy replacement in the case of a controller failure.

I've not seen seen any setups of "3 equal drives" in Linux (I have in HP-UX), but IIRC from reading the md-config docs it doesn't seem to support more than 2 disks for mirroring.
another note:
http://unthought.net/Software-RAID.HOWTO/
3.2 Hot Swap
This has been a hot topic on the linux-kernel list for some time. Although hot swapping of drives is supported to some extent, it is still not something one can do easily.
Hot-swapping IDE drives
Don't ! IDE doesn't handle hot swapping at all.....

Lost in Tokyo,
   Keith



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