[Newserver] so far...

[Jay West]

Jim wrote...
> Actually, things have changed in the last three years.  Software raid can 
> actually outperform hardware raid depending on the software (like ZFS) and 
> hardware (like, a 5-yr-old 3510fc array or something).

Eh, not sure I buy that. If software raid outperforms hardware raid, then it 
almost certainly isn't hardware raid. I can't tell you how many raid 
controllers I've seen on the market that actually aren't real hardware raid.

> Don't do JBOD because you're screwed if a disk blows.  RAID-1 or RAID-5 
> only.
No, I didn't say JBOD, I said JBOD and have the OS perform raid 
(geom/vinum). So no, you are not screwed if a drive blows, because the OS is 
doing raid-5 in that case.

> Along those lines, I would assume you are putting two network cards in, 
> yes?  And will configure IPMP or a similar technology so that if one 
> card/cable bites the dust, you can still get to the machine?  Just a 
> thought.
No, I don't think that dual network cards is necessary. I don't require 
fault tolerance. I just require no data loss.

> I'd like to know how you plan on adding more storage space by adding 
> drives to an existing RAID-5 volume/lun...?
Uh, I'm confused. I do that all the time. Add the drives, the controller 
rebuilds the array on the fly... then you can either create additional 
filesystems or grow the existing filesystems. Heck, every midlevel or higher 
adaptec raid controller I've seen in the past 3 or so years supports adding 
drives to an existing raid5 set. The OS support for expanding the native 
filesystem is slightly less common. But for freebsd, "man growfs"

Jay