Re: Linux Software RAID on External Drives

Simen Thoresen wrote:
> I have 2 3-port FW-cards, and run a cable from a controller port to
> each drive.
...
> The downside with this array is performance. I have not been
> able to gat any decent performance, probably both due to channel
> overhead and PCI saturation.

One S400 bus is already nearly saturated by a single fast drive kit.
The situation is better with IEEE 1394b and S800. Not only is the brutto
throughput doubled, but bus arbitration times are also reduced, meaning
the netto:brutto throughput ratio is higher than with IEEE 1394a.

> For my next project, I'm going for an SATA raid. There are a number of
> solutions that support running external SATA devices, and SATA enclosures
> are priced the same or cheaper than FW enclosures (fewer active parts in
> the enclosure).

This may indeed be even more performant than a 1394b solution, and
I think also cheaper. One thing would interest me: Is hotswap already
supported for SATA in general?

-- 
Stefan Richter
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http://arcgraph.de/sr/
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