zfs discuss - May 2007 - External eSata ZFS raid possible?

Is this possible?

I want an external case with 4 HD in, each having an individual eSata cable. I
plug in this case only when needed (each HD plugs into my PC separately), and do
something like ">import ZFS pool" and use my ZFS raid. When done, I
unplug it with ">export ZFS pool" or something similar command.
This way I save energy, less noise, etc. I want it only as a safe storing place.
In normal work, I dont need access to all data. Just for backup. I have a 250GB
HD as a system disc, and temporary store. Would this scenario be possible?

Here is the case:
http://www.stardom.com.tw/sohotank%20st5610.htm
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Should not be a problem. I have 3 drives hooked up via eSATA myself and it works
great. I am not sure if you will have to power down and up to connect and
disconnect the drives though when you power the drives up and down.
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

I''ve been using long SATA cables routed out through the case to a home
built chassis with its own power supply for a year now.  Not even eSATA.  That
part works well.

Substitute this for USB/Firewire/SCSI/USB thumb drives.  It''s really
the same problem.

Ok, now you want to deal with a ZFS zpool raid on multiple(?) removable drives.

How well does ZFS work on removable media?  In a RAID configuration?  Are there
issues with matching device names to disks?
 
 
This message posted from opensolaris.org

Tom Buskey wrote:
> How well does ZFS work on removable media?  In a RAID configuration?  Are
there issues with matching device names to disks?
I''ve had a zpool with 4-250Gb IDE drives in three places recently:

- in an external 4-bay Firewire case, attached to a Sparc box
- inside a dual-Opteron white box, connected to a 2-channel add-in IDE
   controller
- inside the dual-Opteron, connected via 4 IDE-to-SATA convertors to
   the motherboard''s built-in SATA controller

In each case, once ''format'' found the drives, ZFS was easily
able to
import the pool without any fuss or issues.  Performance was miserable
when running off the add-in IDE controller, but great in the other two
cases.

As far as I can see, this stuff generally just works.

Rob T

There''s a video put out by some Sun people in Germany (IIRC) they  
made several 4 RAIDZs on 3 USB hubs using a total of 12 USB  
thumbdrives. At one point they pulled all the USB sticks, shuffled  
them and then re-imported the pool. Worked like butter.

Corey


On May 7, 2007, at 1:30 PM, Tom Buskey wrote:
> I''ve been using long SATA cables routed out through the case to a
> home built chassis with its own power supply for a year now.  Not  
> even eSATA.  That part works well.
>
> Substitute this for USB/Firewire/SCSI/USB thumb drives.  It''s  
> really the same problem.
>
> Ok, now you want to deal with a ZFS zpool raid on multiple(?)  
> removable drives.
>
> How well does ZFS work on removable media?  In a RAID  
> configuration?  Are there issues with matching device names to disks?
>
>
> This message posted from opensolaris.org
> _______________________________________________
> zfs-discuss mailing list
> zfs-discuss at opensolaris.org
> http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss

I''ve used ZFS to back up my laptops to an external USB disk that formed
one half of the mirror for a long while.

See: http://blogs.sun.com/chrisg/entry/external_usb_disk_drive

I recently stopped doing that in favour of doing the same to iSCSI luns hosted
on ZFS ZVOLs on a server:

http://blogs.sun.com/chrisg/entry/backing_up_laptop_using_zfs

Which is more convenient for me.
 
 
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