RE: [opensuse] firewire drives & backups





Jack Malone

Don't ignore eSata (external sata) for the same purpose.

(If you don't have an eSata connector you can get a Sata <--> eSata
cable for $10 or $20, just be sure it is 300 Gbit/sec rated.)

Especially for Linux I believe the sata drivers are more actively
maintained and have a much bigger user base than the firewire drivers.


Thanks Greg for the info I will have to check into that esata drive for
sure. I do not have an esata connection on this machine but I do have sata
connections on the 3ware raid card that might work for that. I have 3
spare
ports on this 3ware raid card that I can use, just no more room in the
tower
for any more drives to be mounted. This is an older machine ( 3 or 4 years
old) that does not have esata or sata on the motherboard if I remember.
I'm
just looking for a faster backup device then tape or network backup from
another machine.
Do you think that using one of the spare ports on my 3ware card with the
sata to esata cable will work ok or not.
I have a spare pci slot that I could stick another sata card into the
machine also.



Jack

I would be unhappy if the 3ware card did not work well with an eSata
setup via an adaptor cable but I've never tried it.

I just posted that Sata has hotswap now. I'm not sure the 3ware
driver would support hotswap of a JBOD drive. Obviously it should let
you replace drives in a raid array without powering down. I'm just
not sure they handle standalone drives coming and going.

FYI: After you plug in the eSata card you normally have to initiate a
drive scan. I've forgotten how that is done. I think you echo a
value into a sysfs field.

I do not think I will hot plugging the drive, I would be leaving it attached
to the server an then move it to a new machine if I had to do a restore on a
new machine. I now have one space drive plugged into the 3ware card, making
it a total of 5 drivers on the card in a raid 10 configurations ( mirroring
/ spanning). I might play with using the 5th drive as a backup driver til I
can get me an esata drive here next month. I have found one from iomega
besides the one you told me about for around $290 from one of the places I
get hardware from ( synnex ). I much more prefer the seagate drives since
that is what I use most of the time when I buy new drives. I can also get
an esata to sata cable from them for around #12 to $15 or so. Think I will
order one of the two drives an plan to put it into action after I return
from a trip out to LAX for a conference I'm attending next week. Thanks
again for the info. I have also found out that this machine has a newer
motherboard in it with 2 free sata ports on the mb so I have 5 total ports
free for sata. I just need something faster to backup onto for my backups,
that was what got me to thinging of the firewire drive.


Jack

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