Raid Card controller for FC System

[Roger Heflin]

Joe Tseng wrote:
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Albert Graham" <agraham at g-b.net>
> To: "For users of Fedora" <fedora-list at redhat.com>
> Sent: Wednesday, March 26, 2008 12:47 PM
> Subject: Re: Raid Card controller for FC System
> 
> 
>> I've used both on many occasions, but I prefer a good hardware raid 
>> controller, I like the idea that data integrity does not rely on my 
>> personal "expertise" or access at the time shit hits the fan, so for 
>> example, if a disk fails I can call the data center and say unplug 
>> disk #2 and plug in the spare disk (assuming no hot spare) thank you 
>> boodbye, I can then head back to the beach :)
>>
>> Now, I know in your case it is for home use, but hey the link I posted 
>> you was top of the range card for only $300 and it does what it says 
>> on the tin :)
> 
> My inquiry was due to wondering how dependable was the data integrity in 
> a soft RAID if my system drive craps out.  I thought my data would be 
> safer if the RAID was less dependent on the system.  I suppose any 
> corruption in a soft RAID after replacing a failed drive is very rare, 
> right?  That is right, RIGHT?!?!?!  *anxietyattack*

I have had the raid card internally fail in a non-obvious way and corrupt data 
internal to the card, replacing it with an identical one make the errors go 
away, lucky this corruptions was only on read and the underlying data appeared 
to be fine.

And if the crap really hits the fan (multiple disk failures, and number of other 
things), you often need to know how the enable expert mode on the raid 
controller/enclosure and how to properly work you way out of it, and doing the 
wrong thing can leave you with data corruption.

                              Roger