Re: [cobalt-users] Adding disk in Raq 550

[Bruce Timberlake <Bruce.Timberlake@xxxxxxx>]

> not totally, I cannot dig up the reference now, (pretty sure it was
> itpapers.com) but there have / were reported problems due to
> incompatibility between the drive electronics on big ATA disks and
> some RAID controllers, OK we are talking PCI add in RAID cards for 
> PC's here, but there _have_ been some problems between some of these
> controllers and some of the "undocumented" ATA commands 

I think I've heard that to, but we are full software RAID in our boxes
(which is substantially rewritten compared to out-of-the-box RedHat
software RAID), and the configuration has been through pretty extensive
test cycles (we even got Seagate to make firmware-level timing changes in
the base product to make the disks behave better in our systems).  Seagate
was informed of how we'd be using these, and didn't say anything, so I have
to take that as implicit approval on their part as well...

Sun also sells extra disks as "X options" at the time of purchase, if you
want to buy the drives from us, so there should be no problem that we're
aware of in using the Barracuda IVs in a RAID configuration...

> whether these problems would occur in a Linux box and file system I
> have no idea, but on windows PC's and some Mac's there were reports
> of the odd problem

I'll refrain from making lots of obvious comments about Windows... :)

> as I recall the quality of the IDE cable was also a significant
> factor...

Another "fix" in the 550 - since it's cableless, the drives plug directly
into the controller sockets... :)

--
Bruce Timberlake
Sun Cobalt Technology Engineer
Sun Microsystems, Inc.

E: bruce.timberlake@xxxxxxx
T: 877-718-3569 / x69369