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Re: hot-add unformatted drive to RAID array automagically



Am 2005-02-02 19:56:14, schrieb Alexandros Papadopoulos:

> That's easy to setup with mdadm, but my goal here is to make this system 
> as easily maintainable as possible. I'm assuming that a clueful 
> administrator that will know how to prepare the new disk and then add 
> it to the array will NOT be around, so this is how it has to work:
> 
> When a disk fails, one has to be able to just pull it out of the running 
> box (hot swap). In the meantime, the array will be rebuilding with the 
> hot-standby disk, so in a couple of hours there will be a functional 
> RAID-1 array again, but with no standby disk.

If you Controller support it...  because you are using
"mdadm" you are using Software Raid... no luck for you!

I am using 3Ware 4-Channel controllers which support HotSwap.
The price of arround 300 Euro plus HotSwap Bay is it worth.

> After buying a new (unformatted) disk, the maintainance person will then 
> just have to plug the new disk in the box, at which point it will be 
> recognized and added (as a hot standby) to the array.

???

> No partitioning, no typing, no downtime. With what kind of hardware is 
> this possible? I assume SCSI hot-swappable drives, the right case and a 

Even under 3Ware, IPC/Vortex, or Adaptec controllers,
you must activate or deactivate HDDs by hand only
changing the HDDs does not reinitialize the NEW Disk.

> SCSI RAID controller will do the job. Can anyone recommend specific 
> controllers that will play nicely with Debian (sarge)?

3Ware is PATA or SATA

> We have the functionality described above with a M$ box running on a HP 
> Proliant server with a RAID-5 configuration. If RAID-5 is simpler to 
> implement than RAID-1 + hot-standby, we'll go for that (although the 
> latter minimizes the chance of loosing the filesystem).

I recommend Raid-5 with 3 or 4 drives and a 4in3 HotSwap bay

> If I'm mistaken in thinking that mdadm cannot offer the functionality 
> we're looking for (hot-add unformatted drive with no admin input), I'd 
> be more than happy to be corrected!

"mdadm" is for Software Raid.

> Awaiting your suggestions/experiences
> 
> -A

Greetings
Michelle

-- 
Linux-User #280138 with the Linux Counter, http://counter.li.org/ 
Michelle Konzack   Apt. 917                  ICQ #328449886
                   50, rue de Soultz         MSM LinuxMichi
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