Survey: Hot-Swap vs. Fixed Drives
 

Most posted configs don't have/mention hot-swappable drive capability, but I'm curious as to the realities that be out there, so please click away. Thanks.

I'm using all fixed drives at RAID 0.

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Paul,
There's a detailed discussion of the pros & cons of hot-swappable setups going on now.

Wow, submitted my vote in the poll and everyone agreed with me - "No, so far so good" or whatever it is - 100%!!! :) :D :cool:

...... and then I took another look - only one vote at that point ...... :eek:

Oh well, my wife's always telling me I'm 100%, now I can tell her she's right. :D

How would hot-swap save your bacon? If you have a drive die in a stipe you lose all, unless you are running 5 or 50 or one of the other generally not recommended RAIDS right?

Well, you're still in the vast majority, even if it's not 100%.

I know it's only been a few days, but I thought there might be more big-time pro's out there with hot-swaps. Maybe once they finish swapping . . . :D

AFAIK, if a drive takes a dirt nap, you can swap it out immediately. Yes, you'd probably have to rebuild the raid, if it doesn't happen automatically, but recovery time would be hours (if not minutes) and you could still get that Big Project to the client on time.

With a fixed drive system or hot-swap w/no spare drives (WHY?!?!?), you have to contact your favorite vendor and order a new drive. Overnight shipping is not instantaneous. Then you gotta pull your box apart and replace the drive. THEN you rebuild the raid. Meanwhile, your client is leaving you voice mail with FCC-unapproved language.

At least, that's what I think . . .

>>if a drive takes a dirt nap, you can swap it out immediately. Yes, you'd probably have to rebuild the raid, if it doesn't happen automatically,


I believe if you lose a drive in RAID 0, which is what Newtek suggests, then you lose all data. There is no rebuilding unless you have a back up.

I have 6 73GB U320 15k Seagate Harddrives, 1 73GB U160 10k Seagate, and 1 ATA 120GB Western Digital. 4 15k drives in raid 0, 2 15k drives in raid 0, 1 10k as system (c) drive, 120 ATA as storage. I lost a drive(raid 0) and all my files one time.

That is absolutely correct since in a RAID 0 configuration, you have no redundancy, you have data spread across 2 or more drives and the loss of one drive means complete data loss on the whole RAID.

I'd just like to say I know a 0 array is delicate, okay? If a drive goes bye-bye, your project won't fly and you'll sigh and cry. The client will moan when he's on the phone and castigate, excoriate and promise a horrid fate.

Seriously, since the RAID 0 array must be rebuilt from scratch, at least with a hot-swap system, you pop the old drive out, pop the new drive in and start rebuilding, instead of waiting for the FedEX/USP/DHL person and spending x amount of time and bandaids for your bloody fingers pulling your system apart to replace the drive.

I thought some levels of RAID had automatic recovery built in. I know RAID 0 is very simple but I thought there was a system option or 3rd party program that would automatically rebuild the array. I guess not. Oh, well.

RAID 3 and 5 offer the ability to lose a drive and keep on going. I don't remember the specific differences but basically, there are extra checksum bits stored on each drive. If/when a drive fails, the extra bits on the other drives can re-build the data lost on the failed drive. Of course, with these RAID configurations, you sacrifice speed and space to accommodate the redundancy.

Also, you need RAID controller for anything other than 0, AFAIK, which has issues of it's own...

I'm not sure why anyone would pay the extra money for a hot swap chasis. I honestly see zero advantage to having this in a video array. As previously pointed out, if you lose a single drive you lose the whole smash. Having an extra drive around would be nice and would avoid having to order one and wait, but hot swap capabilities are not necessary or even warranted. If you have an extra drive you can swap out, all you have to do is crack the case and switch it. An expensive hot swap chasis will only save you 2 minutes. It's gonna take a lot more time and money to set a hot swap chasis up in the first place.

A hot swap drive is primarily for redundant raids and interchangable storage, (swapping storage between two or more systems or alternating data on one system).

Note: The following statement has been IMMEDIATELY preceded by 30 seconds of loudly knocking on wood ! :p :D

My first VT system was built on the cheep (since I couldn't afford a full-blown unit at the time) and was configured with IDE drives. When Blaine built my Dreamstation, I did briefly consider hot swap drives. The added cost vs. the reliability of the IDE's that I had for over a year with VT[2] along with the advice that Blaine gave me about the different RAID configs and limitations steered me away from hot swaps and anything other than RAID 0.

Both the IDE and SCSI RAIDS are humming along smoothly. :cool: