linux-ext4 - Re: raid is dangerous but that's secret (was Re: [patch] ext2/3: document conditions when reliable operation is possible)

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Message-ID: <4A9FC9B3.1080809@redhat.com>
Date:	Thu, 03 Sep 2009 09:50:43 -0400
From:	Ric Wheeler <rwheeler@...hat.com>
To:	Krzysztof Halasa <khc@...waw.pl>
CC:	Christoph Hellwig <hch@...radead.org>, Mark Lord <lkml@....ca>,
	Michael Tokarev <mjt@....msk.ru>, david@...g.hm,
	Pavel Machek <pavel@....cz>, Theodore Tso <tytso@....edu>,
	NeilBrown <neilb@...e.de>, Rob Landley <rob@...dley.net>,
	Florian Weimer <fweimer@....de>,
	Goswin von Brederlow <goswin-v-b@....de>,
	kernel list <linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org>,
	Andrew Morton <akpm@...l.org>, mtk.manpages@...il.com,
	rdunlap@...otime.net, linux-doc@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-ext4@...r.kernel.org, corbet@....net
Subject: Re: raid is dangerous but that's secret (was Re: [patch] ext2/3:
 document conditions when reliable operation is possible)

On 09/03/2009 09:34 AM, Krzysztof Halasa wrote:
> Ric Wheeler<rwheeler@...hat.com>  writes:
>
>>>> Just to add some support to this, all of the external RAID arrays that
>>>> I know of normally run with write cache disabled on the component
>>>> drives.
>>>
>>> Do they use "off the shelf" SATA (or PATA) disks, and if so, which ones?
>>
>> Which drives various vendors ships changes with specific products.
>> Usually, they ship drives that have carefully vetted firmware, etc.
>> but they are close to the same drives you buy on the open market.
>
> But they aren't the same, are they? If they are not, the fact they can
> run well with the write-through cache doesn't mean the off-the-shelf
> ones can do as well.

Storage vendors have a wide range of options, but what you get today is a 
collection of s-ata (not much any more), sas or fc.

Some times they will have different firmware, other times it is the same.


>
> Are they SATA (or PATA) at all? SCSI etc. are usually different
> animals, though there are SCSI and SATA models which differ only in
> electronics.
>
> Do you have battery-backed write-back RAID cache (which acknowledges
> flushes before the data is written out to disks)? PC can't do that.

We (red hat) have all kinds of different raid boxes...

ric


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