Re: Question about discs and system design

AL D wrote:

On Thu, 29 Dec 2005 12:48:52 -0600, David Maynard <nospam@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:


RAID isn't a substitute for backups, it's an up time solution and, in that sense, if you want to afford it then, yes, it would be nice. Depends on how valuable the time to do restores is. Imagine an ISP, for example. Customers wouldn't be too happy about waiting an hour or two for the system to come back up but it might not be all that catastrophic for you (I don't know). But a single system RAID array isn't going to save you from fire, flood, lightning, Mother Nature in general, Murphy's Law, the big bad internet, the power company, or your own fingers (no, not that fi... never mind).

What I had in mind when I made the larger company comment was one with networked, multiple site, multiple RAID configurations where distributed multiple copy repetitive storage (not a trivial thing to manage) reduces the chance of every one of them going out at the same time but, even then, there's no substitute for a permanent copy. 


I see your point. The actual cost of a RAID card for me is about $20
plus the cost of an extra hard drive.  It might just be worth having
because of the eventuality that I am working away for about one hour
without backing anything up (due to negligence) when a hard drive
dies.  Admittedly a hard drive dying is a rare event though. So,
perhaps it's not worth it. Like you say, everything can be restored
from the backup files - at least up to the last time one backed up.

Yeah. It's not as simple a decision as it would at first seem. It's nice to have the system continue to operate should a 'typical' failure occur but the potential downside is lapsing into a false sense of security. I don't know what your relationship with Murphy is but he and I have a love/hate one. He loves to present me with some of the most bizarre scenarios and I hate it ;) Like the time he gave me an intermittent wall outlet that worked perfectly fine, especially when being monitored, except for completely trashing whatever hard drives were in the system about once or twice a day, usually just after having finished a complete restore, but it only took a month or so for my hair to grow back.

So, once you realize pretty much the same independent backup schedule is needed, with or without a mirrored drive, a significant portion of what seemed to make it initially attractive evaporates.

On the other hand, after having taken appropriately prudent measures Murphy will ensure nothing untoward happens just so you'll feel like a Dufuss for going to all the effort ;) But beware. He's just lying in wait for you to think so.

Kidding aside, I'd do the mirror for the up time and the expectation that, in 'typical' cases, it would simplify the recovery process (knock on wood) but not with an expectation of it being a backup. Consider the pair a, hopefully, more reliable 'single' drive.

I am currently in the process of using Acronis Trueimage for the first
time. The interface and wizard makes it very straightforward to use,
and it is working perfectly with my 80gb drive, which is now housed in
a remote Firewire box. I'm amazed that the disc access seems no slower
now than it was when it was running from the IDE cable inside the PC.
The fan-cooled box is very quiet too, so I am very happy with the
setup so far.


Super. Sounds like you have a good solution for that aspect of it.


Thanks again,

Al D


.

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