> On Mar 26, 2024, at 10:08 AM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk
> <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>
>
>
>
> On 3/26/2024 9:15 AM, Paul Koning wrote:
>>> On Mar 26, 2024, at 8:57 AM, Bill Gunshannon via cctalk
>>> <cctalk@classiccmp.org> wrote:
>>> ...
>> Do you have just part of the RAID set, or enough disks to make a complete
>> one?
>
> Don't know, but doubt it. Some of the disks have probably been used
> for other purposes since the VAXen went away more than 20 years ago.
>
>> If the latter then it's a matter of reverse engineering the RAID layout,
>> which is likely to be doable.
>
> While possible, I think hardly likely. I don't even remember what the
> appliance was. Something DECish.
Chances are those were classic RAID systems, with fixed layouts across much of
the RAID set (not "mapped RAID") exposing what looks like a regular device LUN
(no page based virtualization). If so, there is only a limited set of
possibilities, basically a question of stripe sizes, drive count, and drive
order. Given a guess (or better) of what's on it, such as what file system
type, the right layout would be clear from the fact that it produces valid
content.
It would be a pain to try this with modern complex SAN devices, but with those
of 30+ years ago it's not quite so bad.
paul
