RE: Re: [OT] VERY STUPID RAID QUESTION!

["Phil Harris" <phil@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

> WOW!  I REALLY didn't reaslise they had a bad rep.  The Promise
> cards are half the price of the rocketRAID ones too! Bonus!

Hmmm ... Been using a RocketRAID 404 card on my DVD server for the last
- what - year or more and haven't had any problems. Went with the RR404
because I couldn't find *ANYTHING* from Promise that would take 8 drives
and do hardware RAID across them let alone find something at half the
price.

Just be realistic as to what you want and what you expect from your
hardware ... If the system is for business use then I have to say I
probably wouldn't be using Highpoint *OR* Promise IDE RAID cards and
would be looking at a more solid SCSI RAID solution - but then again
only last year we had *HUGE* problems with the SCSI RAID system at work
and that died a horrible and tortuous death and that was a DPT card (DPT
were part of Promise).

Yes ... Ian had a bad experience of Highpoint but there are bad
experiences of everything. If I'd had my choice my DVD server would be
sitting running on a nice big rack mounted server with a nice big SCSI
RAID array on a nice big UPS. The short statement is - it isn't! There
is no way that I can afford a backup device that will handle a couple of
1.2 Tb arrays and the UPS is still needing a new set of batteries but
then again my life won't end if the array does go down.

If it's important data then you really *MUST* back it up - belt and
braces and all that - and much of Ians personal hardship with his array
going down was the fact that he hadn't got a recent backup which - as
any IT professional will tell you - on a business server is a complete
no-no. I can't remember who it was recently who was posting up here
about losing a few years worth of email when a drive went down but again
a regular backup strategy would have protected that.

I'm not wanting to sound holier than thou on this - if my FTP server
goes titsup then I lose loads of data but it's not worth the personal
investment that I would have to make to protect it. Weigh up the value
of your data and be realistic about it - if it's valuable then protect
it - if it's not then don't worry.

Phil



UK Home Automation Meet 2004 - BOOK NOW!
http://www.ukha2004.com

http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
Post message: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
Subscribe:  ukha_d-subscribe@xxxxxxx
Unsubscribe:  ukha_d-unsubscribe@xxxxxxx
List owner:  ukha_d-owner@xxxxxxx