Jeff Mings wrote:
Thanks for the suggestion. What I'd really like to be able to do is
just switch out backup hard drives once a month. The goal is simple
data redundancy, not hardware fail-over. I'm planning on colocating a
server, and I was hoping I could just umount /dev/whichever , unlock a
drive tray, and reverse the process for a different drive. It just
sounds too easy, though.
-Jeff
Jeff,
Have you looked at the 3ware sata raid controllers and the 3ware hard
drive enclosures? Try searching 3ware at newegg. 129 for a 64-bit two
channel sata raid controller. If the goal is using the drives as a
backup device, I would definitely advise mirroring two drives,
especially if it is offsite.
Whether you use the 3ware drive enclosure, or a less expensive tray, the
3ware web admin tool makes it easy to disable a drive, unlock and remove
it, and take it to another array. This is obviously more costly than
what you are trying to do, but the odds of ever losing data from a
failed drive are even further reduced, and the ease of use is a
timesaver/moneymaker.
--scott
