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Best eSATA JBOD?
redlandmover writes "I already have an HP Media Server (upgraded processor, and memory) that has already been upgraded internally to 3.5TB. I'm sure everyone already has their favorite backup solution (RAID, WHS, a billion external hard drives, etc). My question is: what is the best JBOD (Just a Bunch of Drives), eSATA-connected, external hard drive enclosure? (Preferably, at least 4 drives.)"
Duct tape the drives together, then use software RAID JBOD. That's what MacGyver would have done.
Duct tape? Oh heavens no! No, here's what I did: I went down to the local thrift store and bought a few big shelf speakers for ten dollars. Then I took them apart and got the really powerful magnets out. Using these, you can attach the drives to the outside of your case. There's one gotcha though--some cases are aluminum which means you have to attach the magnets and drives to your CRT if you have one. This usually just means a longer cable though.
The smart thing about this is that the drives are on the outside of the case so they remain cooler than they would in any enclosure.
If you think a RAID is a backup, you'll be overjoyed with the results of my advice!
My work here is dung.
You're better off with an SAS external enclosure and a SAS card with external connections. These can be expensive, but will pay for themselves quickly with the lack of extra management.
What management ? You get an eSATA chassis with a port multiplier, slot in some drives, and run a single cable to the eSATA port on the computer. "Management" doesn't even come into it.
It's a home media server. In what was is SAS even remotely justified ?
You do know that a RAID can be used for STORING backups don't you? Making your primary storage a RAID is no substitute for a backup. Adding an offline RAID storage can be a backup.
Despite being at the forefront in almost all areas of number theory, Kummer was renowned for being very poor at elementary arithmetic. (A number theorist who was poor at arithmetic!) One story has him standing at the blackboard during a lecture, unable to compute 7 times 9. One mischievous student suggested 61, so Kummer wrote this on the board and started to continue. Another mischievous student shouted out that it was 69 not 61. At this, an exasperated Kummer, said "come on gentlemen, it can not be both". Later, it was rumoured that he told colleagues, he should have known the answer since it couldn't be 61 or 67, because 61 and 67 are primes and it couldn't be 65 because 65 is a multiple of 5, and he should have realized 69 was too large because 7 times 10 was only 70, so the only odd number left in the sixties was 63.
This post climbed Mt. Washington.