[ I've delayed reply to this one to try to work out how to express myself
better, but have failed, so sorry -- it's not as clear as I'd hoped
]
>> o Learning
>> Granted, no speed improvements, but you can learn about it.
>> Knowledge like that comes in handy in Interviews ;-)
> But you are learning in an environment not conducive to learning
I disagree.
> -> ie: the system is not real-world, and in fact, may be far from a good
> example of the real world.
It's a learning curve.
Such testing gets you a long way up that curve !!
1) have I correctly set all the kernel build options
2) do the startup scripts (etc) correctly start/stop the RAID
3) can I create syntactically correct raidtab files
4) can I invoke mkraid correctly
5) what are the procedures for fixing problems when a disk has failed
6) how can I add spare disks
7) how so I convert a raw disk to RAID1
8) What do I do when I just see "mkrai aborted"
If all users had performed all the above tests on such dummy systems,
I suspect 90% of the please for help on this list would go !
> Again, testing in a environment not simulating real world.
Again, I diagree !
It *IS* using the same kernel, same scripts, same utilities, same procesures,
etc, etc
> I can get a chair, and an old record (steering wheel) and pretend
> that I am driving a car.
No -- a closer analogy is to get into a *REAL* car, and drive it round a
deserted carparkl / runway / ...
You learn how to start the engine, control the clutch, stop the car,
control a skid, etc.
Sure, you don't learn how to deal with other traffic, but you get used to
driving a *REAL* car without the chance of doing damage to anyone else !
[[ I learnt to drive a car aged 10.
I made one mistake, and knocked down our garden wall.
I also learnt how to build a dry stone wall :-))
]]
> Sure, I can learn and 'test' things,
... in a real car -- yup !
> but do they in any way represent a real world scenario?
It's a pretty close approximation of the basics.
Lets get people a good half way up the learning curve before letting them loose
on real data !!
