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Date:      Fri, 12 Dec 1997 18:51:59 +0100 (MET)
From:      Wilko Bulte <wilko@yedi.iaf.nl>
To:        tom@sdf.com (Tom)
Cc:        walcaraz@indy3.gstone.com, freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: RAID on FreeBSD
Message-ID:  <199712121752.SAA01171@yedi.iaf.nl>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.95q.971211150053.17850B-100000@misery.sdf.com> from "Tom" at Dec 11, 97 03:04:51 pm

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As Tom wrote...

> On Thu, 11 Dec 1997, Wilko Bulte wrote:
> 
> > >   9 drives in an uncomfortable number for RAID5.  Probably better to go
> > 
> > Why would 9 drives be uncomfartable?
> 
>   Well, if you are going to making one arrray of 9 drives, write
> performance will bad.  If you are going to making 3 arrays of 3

Why? Calculating the parity takes the same overhead in both cases.
What you *don't* want to do is put too many drives of the same raidset on
a single SCSI bus. Preferably you have only one drive of each set on
each channel. This allows a channel to die completely without loosing your 
data.

> drives each, you will end up with a lot of overhead.
> 
>   RAID5 arrays of 5 drives is kinda of nice sweet spot.  If you go much
> bigger, just use RAID0 over multiple RAID5.

I don't agree. It *really* depends on the hardware you're using. E.g 
the company I work for (DEC) sells the HSZx0 range of controllers. 
This controller has (along with battery backup writeback cache) 6 SCSI 
device buses. The 'natural' number for that one is 6 drives.

Generally my point is that you really have to take a very close look 
to your hardware setup. 

Wilko
_     ______________________________________________________________________
 |   / o / /  _  Bulte email: wilko @ yedi.iaf.nl http://www.tcja.nl/~wilko
 |/|/ / / /( (_) Arnhem, The Netherlands - Do, or do not. There is no 'try'
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