Re: [OT] Merry Xmas?? not here, alas.. :

[Bruno Prior <bruno@xxxxxxx>]

Bad luck, Ian. If the card didn't perform its basic function, maybe you
have some claim against Highpoint. Not that that will get your data back.

For future, can I recommend software-RAID? Unless your server does a lot
of CPU-intensive work (which most servers don't), you will have loads of
cycles to spare. And your main CPU will be more powerful than anything
built into a RAID controller card. Software RAID places a very small
burden on your CPU, but it saves money, performs at least as well in 90%
of cases, and allows you to configure your system exactly how you want
(you can RAID partitions as well as disks, so you can put essential data
and system files on RAID-1, and less important data on RAID-5 or even
RAID-0). And you will only be dependent on the linux kernel, not some
proprietary system over which you have no control.

Cheers,

Bruno

Ian Lowe wrote:
> Or, put another way, Highpoint strikes again...
>
> I'm kicking myself around the place for letting my guard down, and
> trusting a single shred of data to the *crap* that is highpoint: Jen
> and I got home this morning at about 2am, all festive and cheery...
>
> To find a dead server.. the main company server that stores all of
> our documents, email etc... the one with no tape drive, as it's gone
> faulty and we are waiting for HP to ship a replacement..
>
> except, I haven't been too fussed with the HP delays, because I
> rebuilt the server in September to use 4 160Gb disks in a Raid 5
> set... I have a great track record with Raid5: on Compaq Proliants, I
> didn't lose a single byte, despite some nasty failures...
>
> However, it's now abundantly clear that the Rocket"RAID"
Card has
> more in common with a tin of wasp repellent than with any decent
> implementation of RAID.
>
> It seems that about 10pm one of the four disks in the stripe failed
> (or had a minor wobblie to itself: it seems to test okay now), and
> rather than doing the raid-5 thing of continuing to run with reduced
> performance, the RocketRaid card decided to choke.. and didn't cause
> RedHat to crash, oh no: it instead allowed the operating system to
> think it was writing new email, log entries etc...
>
> ...and over the following 4 hours or so, wrote random garbage all
> over the ext3 filesystem on the disk, causing absolutely massive
> corruption. I have had about an hours sleep, and am now (after much
> twiddling) about a tenth of the way through an efs2ck which is either
> doing a brave job of trying to rebuild what remains of the
> filesystem, or is arbitrarily deleting all of my company records,
> scanned documents and personal photographs...
>
> And thanks to the ongoing tape drive problem, my most recent
"proper"
> backup (apart from the odd laptop copy of bits of data) is september.
>
> Right about now, I'm looking around for someone to tell me I'm on
> Scare Tactics...
>
> The real reason for this post (apart from trawling for sympathy or
> offers of assisted suicide) is to warn again: Highpoint = Data Death.
> I said it before, and now I'm suffering for ignoring my own warning
> and thinking that good reviews and the passing of time would change
> things..
>
> I have now suffered data loss from HighPoint Based systems three
> times... I have to live with kicking myself for being a confirmed
> moron, I just hope that someone takes this as a warning, and avoids
> the pain.
>
> DON'T TRUST *ANY* HIGHPOINT BASED DEVICE WITH DATA YOU ARE NOT
> PREPARED TO LOSE.
>
> Ian "ho ho ho" Lowe.
>
>
>
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