[mythtv-users] Should I use LVM on this new raid?

Gareth Glaccum gareth.glaccum at btopenworld.com
Thu Sep 27 18:05:25 UTC 2007


>>     In fairness, while Seagate IDE drives are very good, even I don't
>>     expect them to run 24/7/365/100% duty.
>>      The SCSI drives cost 3 times as much precisely *because* they are, 
>> in
>>    fact, designed to run at pretty close to 100% duty cycle for the 
>> entire
>>      5 years.
>>
>>    Bah, if you ask me, that's just marketing BS.  Recent studies by 
>> Google,
>>    among others, have shown that a) SCSI drives are no more reliable than 
>> ATA,
>>    and b) "enterprise" rated drives aren't any better, either.

>My experience doesn't agree with that, though I haven't *read* the
>Google paper

Data points from my experiences, well know disk manufacturer:
Standard/Desktop disks, 60 sold, duty cycle 25% on 24/7, after 4 months, 
replaced 20, air-con kept constant at ~20 celsius
Enterprise/Nearline disks, 140 sold, duty cycle 40% on 24/7 after 8 months, 
none replaced, air-con failure 2 weeks after deployment, room ambient went 
to 75 celsius, otherwise constant at ~20 celsius

I would recommend paying the extra for nearline if you can afford it. 
Archive class disks are slightly better than Desktop if you can't go to the 
nearline. I personally went for archive, am running a raid 5 and bought a 
cold spare for use whilst replacements are obtained.
Gareth




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