[lug] RAID installation on Fedora 6 Zod

Collins Richey crichey at gmail.com
Thu May 17 06:57:01 MDT 2007


On 5/16/07, Nate Duehr <nate at natetech.com> wrote:
>
> On May 16, 2007, at 2:27 PM, Sean Reifschneider wrote:
>
> > On Mon, May 14, 2007 at 01:49:09PM -0600, Nate Duehr wrote:
> >> How about, under most "normal" disk replacements, zero commands typed
> >
> > Sure, that's hardware.  Linux also has hardware that does "zero
> > command
> > rebuild".  So, it seems that on the software side it really doesn't
> > get
> > much easier than under Linux, and ditto on the hardware side.
> > Sure, you
> > can say that Linux software RAID sucks compared to Solaris hardware
> > RAID,
> > but that's just trolling...
>
> I was careful to state that there are newer software implementations
> (commercial) that are also zero-command rebuilds, or so I hear.
>
> You seem very reluctant to admit that Linux software RAID up until
> very recently wasn't very mature, and required -- for at least five
> to seven years longer than the commercial versions -- a much larger
> amount of manual intervention than commercial Unix software RAID
> variants.
>
> Today, it's better -- but it just "got there" only recently.  People
> starting with Linux RAID today have probably 90% of the features of
> the commercial flavors, and slightly more complex setup and removal
> if the RAID needs to be modified with no down-time.
>
> 5 years ago, you couldn't have said anything good other than it was
> cheap, about Linux software RAID.

A big so what? 5 years ago, Linux wasn't very usable on the desktop
either. Great strides have been made, and it's getting better day by
day.

> We're not trolling -- we're stating our preference for hardware RAID
> because we've seen how easy it makes things, long-term.
>
> No offense to you or your organization, but most companies today
> would prefer not to have to hire talent to set up RAID 5.  They'd
> rather buy a more expensive hardware RAID solution, that comes with a
> 24/7/365 800 number... plug it in, turn it on, format it and put
> their data on it.
>

No problem. If you can afford big iron, buy it.

>
> But here's the kicker... that box was a Solaris 8 box.  The OS and
> all the commands to do that were available in February of 2000.
> Linux software RAID in February of 2000 was atrocious.

All too true. And how many Linux developers did Sun bankroll in 2000?

>
> The newer commercial stuff is even better, and smarter.
>
> We're not saying Linux software RAID is "bad", or "hasn't gotten
> better" -- we're saying we trust what we've been using (and has a
> huge install base) since the beginning of the millennia, more than we
> trust Linux's "stuff" which still seems to be a bit of a moving target.
>
> And ZFS is flat-out brilliant.  It's really too bad Sun's so
> mismanaged these days... they still put out a very nice OS and lots
> of tools from people that really understand a zero-downtime mentality.
>

I agree whole-heartedly. And it's not just "these days."

But back to the original points. Yes, Linux software raid is maybe a
90% solution, but it's still a decent solution for a lot of folks who
can't afford the 100% commercial solution.

-- 
Collins Richey
     If you fill your heart with regrets of yesterday and the worries
     of tomorrow, you have no today to be thankful for.



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