Re: a user-raid list for non gurus?

[Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>]

Sandro Dentella wrote:

>Hi all,
>
>  even thought I'm subscribed to this list since quite a lot of time, I only
>  can grab a little purcentage of the discussion due to technical gap.
>  
>  When it happens that I ask something to the list I normally get unanswered
>  even on problems that in my opinion shouldn't be considered really
>  specific to my setup. Here just the last 2 questions:
>
>http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-raid&m=114185900020437&w=2
>http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-raid&m=114120476328121&w=2
>  
>  I'd like to know if there is a users-linux-raid where these kind of
>  questions get answered, if I should just insist on this list, or if I
>  missed some document (possibly a complete howto) that already gives 
>  thorought info on how to cope with troubles, or a wiki.
>  
>

The problem is that with a user list, the people who are best able to 
answer your questions are unlikely to see them. While many people have 
good intentions, in practice we lack TIME to read yet another list, 
particularly those where the chance of finding something useful to an 
experienced user are small.

>  
>  I feel like linux-raid is missing a good howto. The documentation you can
>  find is often outdated or incomplete and it only saldomly helped me to get
>  out of problems. 
>  
>

Right now RAID is moving so fast that it would be out of date, and 
that's less helpful than nothing. The mdadm man page is the howto, and 
the only thing remotely able to provide information on exactly what you 
have installed today.

>  The sad part of all this is that with raid systems you are not normally in
>  the mood/position to test things. You would much more prefere to arrive at
>  the crash already with the knowledge on how to cope with it... but the
>  crash is never as the one you simulated failing the device...
>
>Thanks for your attention and you job anyhow
>sandro
>*:-)
>
>
>PS: In case anybody feeels like writing a complete howto I could
>    help... with the index ;-) of what a system admin -not a raid guru-
>    would like to read to understant raid (not just to setup)
>  
>
I agree that people don't feel like messing with their RAID when they have it working! I would love to change my setup, but there is no funding for a backup system to make backing up several TB convenient, and no time to spend doing it the hard way.

-- 
bill davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  CTO TMR Associates, Inc
  Doing interesting things with small computers since 1979