On Dec 17, 2007, at 10:32 AM, Michael O'Keefe wrote:
I don't know if there's a "standard" for RAID communications.
It would be nice if the RAID cards spoke IDE/SCSI/SATA so they
actually did look like disk block devices and didn't need any
specific kernel driver. I'm sure there are reasons why this doesn't
happen, I don't know what they are though.
I would hazard that it's mainly a cost issue. it's obviously
possible, because the external self-managed RAID cabinets do exactly
that: look like a SCSI, SATA or whatever device, and work just like a
Big Hard Disk.
In fact, I think I recall seeing a module that would fit in a 5.25"
drive bay and do exactly that, but it's been a few years since I've
seen it.
If you wanted extra credit, you'd provide an application that opened a
control interface as a SCSI generic device to the control module
(would would itself appear as another SCSI target separate from the
storage). It's perfectly doable.
But it's not dirt-cheap.
Remember, the Cheap Bastards drive everything. Why do it in expensive
hardware, if you can just do it in cheaper hardware, or software?
Gregory
--
Gregory K. Ruiz-Ade <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
OpenPGP Key ID: EAF4844B keyserver: pgpkeys.mit.edu
--
[email protected]
http://www.kernel-panic.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/kplug-list