Bryan J. Smith wrote: > That means it's ideal for when you're just throwing data around. Things > change though if you're doing more buffering (like RAID-5). That's why > 3Ware introduced the 9500 series (to add DRAM buffer to its existing > ASIC+SRAM design). Another poster (sorry, could find the name, was it Peter?) mentioned the lack of hot-swap support in most of the hardware raid out there. If this is the case, what's the point of raid 1 or 5 if a failed drive will hang the system? What's your experience with the 3Ware cards? > What I was stating was that you _never_ want to use "consumer" buses for > server storage. Despite Apple's insistence that FireWire is server- > grade, they've had lots of issues. Yes, it's better than USB and far > more intelligent (e.g., USB can't do device-to-device, FireWire can). Okay, okay, you win! You're right and I'm wrong! I will never consider IEEE-1394 again. You and the other posters have convinced me. Every USB cable in my server room will be removed and destroyed. Every USB port will be filled with glue. :) > 2. Backup over NIC to a "near-line" device with the tape drive What about LVM snapshots? I've been using these for awhile with no problems. Yes, I understand that it will consume disk bandwith but that's not a limitation in my installation.