Quoth Shachar Shemesh:

> Marc A. Volovic wrote:
> > 2. in case of drive failure, recovery process is a pain
> >   
> Well, doing "sfdisk -l /dev/sda > partitions" in advance, and then doing
> "sfdisk /dev/sdb < partitions" isn't all that hard, really.

Which - especially in the case of complex raid volumes and doubly
especially when also running LVM - makes for managing a whole pile of small
and very important files which tend to *pooof* when the need is greatest.

> > 3. in case of device move, reintegration of volume is also a pain and may
> >    lead to data loss
> >   
> Not if you configure MD properly. Properly configured, it finds the
> partitions based on GUID, which means that a move is a no-brainer.

I have yet to see a case when GUID-based mounting helps rather than
hinders. Especially - again, on post-failure - when re-integrating two
devices with two.... errr... I mixed this up with disk-labels. Doh. Ok,
GUID is possible. But same counter as above - managing GUID labels in a
crisis is error-prone and each mistake increases crisis.

> > 4. lower performance than any hardware raid
> >   
> ANY hardware raid?
> You obviously have not seen some of the shitty stuff that floats around.

Yes - ANY hardware raid. and I do NOT mean that crap BIOS-based raids. I
mean normal raids - Mylex, Vortex, Raidcore, LSI, etc.

And yes - I have seen quite a bit of shit stuff floating around - being
shit and floating kind of keeps it on the surface and visible.

> A RAID controller that will have almost not buffers.
> A controller that will restart resync in the middle if the drive is
> being accessed too much.

That is flaky or borken (sic) hardware.

> better performer than MD. If you take a GOOD raid controller, MD will
> have poorer performance, but then it's really a question of budget,
> isn't it?

A raid controller (4 ports, SATA-I) will cost some US$350. Hardly a budget
breaker and well worth it.

> http://oss.metaparadigm.com/safte-monitor/

Ooooh - never saw that. Nice.

> I do believe you are either biased or always buying from someone else's
> pocket. Either way, all the above do not relate to my situation.

I am indeed biased and I am not buying from someone elses pocket in all
cases (in many, but not all)... For my personal and professional use, I buy
from my pocket. It is too expensive to buy poor shit or rely on
labour-intensive stuff - my labour (and, in fact, almost everyone's, too)
is too expensive to expend on coddling weird stuff. I do not do system
admin as a hobby, only as a necessary evil.

> On the other hand, it also has some nice things about it, the most
> obvious being that you can use different partitions on the disk at
> different RAID levels.

Reminds you of my point above on managing little clitical files, no?
Surely, you cavil...

> As I stated above, it's all a question of budget and trade offs.

Assume a SATA RAID controller costs US$400. Assume you cost US$80/h (I am
being a cheap bugger). Assume life-cycle at 36 months. The math is NOT
complex.


-- 
---MAV
Marc A. Volovic                                         [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Swiftouch, LTD                                             +972-544-676764

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