[PLUG] Removable Hard Disk Recommendations

[Keith Lofstrom]

Keith wrote:
> OTOH, the big issue is a version of Linux that supports PATA hot
> swap.  That was in the later 2.4.xx kernels, but it was removed
> from 2.6.xx for at least a while.  It might be back in.  Perhaps
> SATA is better supported.  I don't know whether the carriers for
> SATA are reliable.

On Tue, Feb 20, 2007 at 01:00:19PM -0800, Charles Sliger wrote:
> [chaz> ] This system will be running CentOS-4. Do you know if it supports
> hot swap?

Not PATA up to 2.6.18 kernels.  Probably USB.  Maybe SATA.  The
relevant phrase above is "I don't know", so you will have to 
research it and let us know.

On 2.4.22 (FC1), you can remove a disk with "hdparm -b 0 /dev/hdc".  
With 2.6.9 (RHEL4) and 2.6.18 (RHEL5beta) you get the error message:

   HDIO_SET_BUSSTATE failed: Operation not supported

Now you know what I do.  Please find out more and share with us.  I
am especially interested in whether SATA will hotswap properly;  SATA
disks are cheap and big, and the Wave Of The Future according to some.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs