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bakytn
Asked: 2011-12-19 14:07:33 +0800 CST

Can I use SATA discs as a hot swap discs

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My server supports hardware RAID and it can use SATA drives.

I wonder does it depend on Server or on a Discs to know, if they support hot swapping? And rebuilding while working?

I know that SAS drives are intended to be used as a hotswap. How about SATA's?

raid hotswap

1 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    Hot-swap is more a function of the drive-controller than the drive itself. Doing it requires some procedures to be followed by the controller that are more expensive to implement than a simple controller. Some RAID controllers turn off the disk-cache and rely on on-controller cache to satisfy the same need, as this ensures that when the data gets sent to a disk it is committed immediately. Some controllers don't handle connection-after-boot, which is what hotswap is.

    I've used SATA drives in hot-swap situations, the drive environment just needs to be engineered for it. And by environment I mean "easy to remove without dismantling the case". Mostly it's just press a button, pull the handle, extract drive, replace. Those systems have a separate backplane and drive-carriers that make the hot-swapping easy. Those can be off the shelf SATA drives, just in the right carriers.

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