Bacula-users

Re: [Bacula-users] eSATA / USB disks as media for Bacula

2009-11-13 08:57:07
Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] eSATA / USB disks as media for Bacula
From: Kevin Keane <subscription AT kkeane DOT com>
To: bacula-users <Bacula-users AT lists.sourceforge DOT net>
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 2009 05:53:30 -0800
> -----Original Message-----
> From: John Drescher [mailto:drescherjm AT gmail DOT com]
> Sent: Friday, November 13, 2009 5:06 AM
> To: Bruno Friedmann; bacula-users
> Subject: Re: [Bacula-users] eSATA / USB disks as media for Bacula
> 
> > Just an add to the previous great comments.
> >
> > If you envisage to use e-sata, check that your chipset/bios support
> hot-replace/add.
> > It's working nicely with laptop, but not always for a vaste majority
> of "cheap" motherboard.
> >
> > Mine a Asus M2N-Pro support e-sata : but only on cold restart
> (jmicron and 2.6.27 kernel)
> > Sadly I've to use the usb-2 ...
> 
> I am pretty sure the regular SATA ports on this board (nvidia chipset
> ones) support hot swap. I say that because I have 3 or 4 of my linux
> raid servers at work using M2Ns and I have definitely hot swapped
> drives on them.

I am by no means an eSATA expert, but my understanding is that the real issue 
is IDE emulation and (Windows) driver support.

Based on that understanding - which could be wrong:

IDE mode = no hot swapping
AHCI mode = hot swapping

At least assuming that AHCI is implemented according to proper specs - which 
may or may not be true for cheap motherboards.

AHCI needs to be enabled in the BIOS, and ALSO needs to be supported by the 
hard disk driver in your operating system. Windows 7 and I believe also Vista 
have AHCI-capable drivers, but Windows XP doesn't out of the box.

In the Linux world, I really don't know - I believe that it would be slightly 
ahead of the curve and probably have a bit better AHCI support.

Unfortunately "I have hot-swapped drives" is not a reliable measure. It is 
entirely possible that hotswapping worked purely by chance but would break the 
next time you try it.


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