I had terrible problems with hotpluging on linux, slow, hangs, os
crashes. We ended up with a LaCie 500gb usb disk on openbsd 3.6.  Amanda
is fine with it... if you can get the OS to hotplug a disk ok.  It
varies a lot with exactly what controller is in the USB2 hard disk... so
be sure that any testing is done with the exact model disk you plan to
buy in quantity for backups.

On Wed, 08 Jun 2005 13:43:25 +0100, "Tom Brown"
<tom.brown AT goodtechnology DOT com> said:
> Hi
> 
> Not entirely and only related to amanda but i'm sure people have done 
> this before so here we go ;)
> 
> Linux amanda server (WBEL4) and its using filedriver for virtual tapes 
> as client does not want to spend $$$ on an LTO3 drive - a LOT of data
> here.
> 
> So anyone used USB2/Firewire external HDD's as their virtual tapes? How 
> does amanda/Linux handle this? I presume that amanda does not really 
> care and that this is prehaps more a Linux question but any gotchas? 
> makes to avoid? Does Linux mind hotplugging?
> 
> Thanks guys