mp.os.os2.misc:2531
From: me@privacy.net
In <8k6ot3F95pU1@mid.individual.net>, on 11/13/2010
at 05:17 PM, Victor Bien said:
>me@privacy.net wrote:
>> In <8jvafiFb8tU1@mid.individual.net>, on 11/10/2010
>> at 09:28 PM, Victor Bien said:
>>
>> ...snipped...
>>
>>> I suffered a terrible disk crash a couple of months back and found my
>>> backup scheme incomplete so I lost a lot of data. I am therefore
>>> wondering about setting up a RAID type 1 hard disk setup. Will OS/2 work
>>> with say an Adaptec 1220SA RAID card?
>>
>>> I have done some sussing around including eCom station and OS/2 Warp
>>> Compatible hardware list but haven't been able to find any relevant info.
>>> What is the state of play with RAID?
>>
>> I had a similar problem a bit over a year ago and decided to go with a
>> RAID system myself. After researching what hardware was available for
>> OS/2, which is mostly older and out of production, I decided to purchase
>> an outboard RAID unit. I purchased an Areca Technology Corporation
>> ARC-5020 unit and installed four WD 320GB SATA drives to build two RAID-5
>> volumes. This unit attaches to my system via an eSATA connection and
>> appears as two SATA drives to the system.
>>
>> I have been happy with this hardware and would recommend others give it
>> consideration if they have need of RAID reliability for storage.
>
>Dave can you give a bit more detail? I had a look at the specs and it
>said the device was "OS independent". 1. So are the volumes under the
>control of OS/2? I mean does it handle Extended Attributes (EAs)?
The device appears to the eSATA adapter you attach it to as if one or more
hard drives were connected. The RAID function is invisible to you from
that side. You manage the RAID via HTTP to the unit. You use your
operating system to partition and format as you would with a physical
drive.
In my case I have NTFS, FAT and JFS partitions formatted on the unit drive
with Windows XP, FreeDOS, OS/2-eCS and Linux Mint installed on them. I
utilize boot manager to determine which to boot and have the grub for
linux installed in its boot partition.
>2. Is the eSATA connection via an on-board SATA port?
That is how I am presently using it. I had to purchase an eSATA back
plate that makes two eSATA jacks available outside my unit and cables plug
into the SATA jacks on my motherboard. I have also purchased a PCI card
with eSATA jacks on it, but I am not using it yet as there are no OS/2-eCS
drivers for that card yet.
> If such a set-up can handle EAs it could function as a daily use
>working RAID disk(s) but if not you'd only protect yourself from disk
>collapse by regular backups to them and with BA2k one would still be
>hamstrung with its 2.1 GB limit (although on a daily basis you wouldn't
>normally generate 2.1 GB!). However, you'd still be troubled by the
>management load dealing with accumulating backups as I've discussed in
>another post. The RSync approach as Doug Bissett discussed would only be
>valid if the setup could handle EAs? Not?
> What I would like is a daily use RAID disk setup with full OS/2
>filesystem capabilities where you could work away without the constant
>risk of a disk collapse.
I believe this unit will serve the need for daily use as you seek. I
looked at other options, but the RAID controller cards that OS/2-eCS has
drivers for are all older SCSI-based ones that are mostly out of
production. The SCSI drives they require are also smaller and more
expensive that the newer SATA drives the unit can use.
I have had occasion to work with an IBM ServeRAID adapter in the past and
with the exception that the RAID control for this outboard unit is via
HTTP I find the operation similar. The logical volumes that are created
by the unit are for the intents and purposes of operating systems
equivalent to physical hard drives.
-- Dave
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