On Mon, 15 Oct 2007, Michael Dross wrote:
Hope this is not too far off topic...
SAS is SCSI. "Serial Attached SCSI" It's just a "newer/better" version so to
speak. SAS drives are to SATA, like
SCSI is/was to IDE... in terms of performance... if that makes any sense.
Overly simplified, but hopefully
draws a connection.
Now the confusing part is that a SAS designed backplane and controller will
work with SATA II drives.
But most folks that have paid the premium for SAS raid controllers, need the
performance and usually install
SAS drives, despite their higher cost.
Cool. Well, here's where I ask another question.
Starting in February, as UNIDATA points out oh so well, for those of us
who love the Level 2 radar data...we're going to love it a lot more. To
the tune of 2.3 times more, in terms of file size. Only the lower tilts
will have the "super resolution", but let's face it: those file sizes
aren't going to be small.
So I am thinking this. I am on a pretty tight budget, and yet I want the
Level 2 data...from every site...
I buy a RAID 1 array. This means I have two 750 GB SATA drives, running
SATA 1 until either the Kernel or the OS or the hardware firmware gets
straightened out. I have 1.5 GB/sec throughput on each drive. If one hard
drive blows up, everything is still cool and things keep chugging along.
And, I (hope) things can be rebuilt on the blown second drive
automagically.
So my questions are:
1. Is this going to be fast enough to handle Level 2 data starting next
spring?
2. How do you set this up?
3. What specific hardware is needed? (Yes, I've never done this before.)
4. Or do I tell my boss that I REALLY need SCSI or SAS drives to do a
RAID 1 array with what I am going to do?
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Gilbert Sebenste ********
(My opinions only!) ******
Staff Meteorologist, Northern Illinois University ****
E-mail: sebenste@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx ***
web: http://weather.admin.niu.edu **
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