[ale] motherboard RAID versus software RAID

[Stuffed Crust]

On Fri, Jan 20, 2006 at 03:52:14PM -0500, James P. Kinney III wrote:
> Hardware RAID. The controller fails. That model is no longer available.
> Buy a new model. It doesn't recognize the existing array since it has
> not been initialized. BAD DAY. Must use specialized RAID
> extraction/recovery tools to create a virtual drive image for copying
> the data to temporarily. Wipe the drives, create new RAID5 stripes, copy
> back the image to the drive array. Total time on a 40GB filesystem:
> 28-24 hours.

...And this is why you buy reputable hardware, and if your data is that 
crucial you have backups.  You also have spares of everything so if 
something breaks you can swap in a replacement immediately.

For example, take the 3Ware RAID cards.  You can plug an array created 
on their old old 6000-series cards into a modern card, and it will just 
work.  (maybe even further back, but I don't have any experience with 
those cards)

Well, once you attach PATA<->SATA converters, that is.  Heh.

But my point is.. they've kept backwards compatibility through at least 
six product generations, and their stuff just works.

The downside?  You spend more money, naturally.

 - Solomon
-- 
Solomon Peachy        				 ICQ: 1318344
Melbourne, FL 					 
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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