RAID: Threat or Menace 105
rec.sport.paintball:536237 alt.baldspot:296493 comp.sys.palmtops.pilot:409543 alt.sys.pc-clone.dell:280048 This is the most important question of your life. The question is...
You're not getting the whole picture.
Depends heavily on the user and their application, and it also depends very heavily on what kind of storage reliability, redundancy, and backup that you feel you need.
Example: I'm fully self-hosted for my Internet presence, and I maintain large file archives of software and electronically-stored documentation which dates from this year clear back to the late 80's. This includes a large amount of (probably irreplaceable) 'legacy' DOS- based software, much of which was designed to fill specialized industrial apps or is otherwise of value to computer collectors.
nbsp; Just a spelling nitpick... That should read "throughout." With that said... I've been reading this group for only six or so months, but...
My big FTP archive is housed on a Compaq ProLiant 6500 server with SCSI RAID-5. Building such an array requires a minimum of three drives of identical size (I've got a full shelf of six nine-giggers, giving me a usable array size of about 45 gigs).
If I lose a drive, no problem -- The server continues to operate, albeit with a reduction in performance (but, more importantly, NO data loss), until I can plug in a replacement drive.
Our smaller server, where my wife and I keep our home directories, is housed on a smaller ProLiant, but still on a RAID-5 array.
In almost six years of operation, I've had ONE drive go bad on me. It was successfully replaced with no data loss, no down time, and no hbuttles. Even if there had been disk-based data loss, I would have been able to recover from our regular backups on DLT.
That's where RAID-5 really shines -- In its ability to withstand the loss of one or more drives, and keep on ticking.
It all comes down to how much you value your data. In my case, I can confidently say that RAID is neither a "Threat" nor a "Menace." Properly implemented, it can really save your tail!
Keep the peace(es).
-- Dr. Anton T. Squeegee, Director, Dutch Surrealist Plumbing Insbreastute. (Known to some as Bruce Lane, ARS KC7GR, kyrrin (a-t) bluefeathertechd=o=tcalm -- www.bluefeathertech.com "If Salvador Dali had owned a computer, would it have been equipped with surreal ports?"