MacZFS, I use for music and (non-pirated) video collection which resides on a Lian-Li eSATA enclosure (5*1Tb). protection against “silent data corruption”), but, to my mind, they apply to server-grade, not the direct-attached (DAS) storage units we need for daily desktop work.
Granted, it does not offer the sexy features that ZFS-based solutions claim (e.g. I think that both are great! I’ve opted for SoftRAID for my work data, as it appears to be top-notch in terms of functionality, reliability and support.
#STOP SOFTRAID UPDATE SOFTWARE#
The only software RAID projects available for the Mac are: SoftRAID, a commercial application, and MacZFS, which is open-source and free. It might be me, but one does not get a sense of security with Apple’s RAID implementation. Disk Utility has messed things up after a disk failure, requiring reinitialization of the array, and I still can’t get over that. There is no troubleshooting, no user notification and no GUI to manage the arrays. For this reason, I opted not to use the Sharkoon’s built-in RAID5 scheme, as it would render the array useless if the box went down I’d rather manage individual disks myself, since this would offer some hope of salvaging data lost to hardware failure (and would not require hiring a recovery bureau).Īpple RAID would be the logical choice, but it leaves a lot to be desired, even under OSX Lion. Well, by now it should be obvious that data reliability is the main rationale behind this setup. Can’t be too careful (or too paranoid) with data, you see. Oh, and a time machine backup of my office data also takes place, along with a SuperDuper clone of the root volume. Needless to say, each array is backed up to a Netgear ReadyNAS Pro, as well as a Solaris Express server. Most hard disks are WD 2Tb “green” models. For example, enclosure A stores my work-related stuff (in a 3-disk mirror), while enclosure B contains audiovisual stuff: a huge Adobe Lightroom catalog in a two-disk mirror, and my home video projects in another array. So, the setup is as follows: two 5-disk enclosures are directly attached to my Mac, each with an assortment of non-RAID and mirrored arrays, depending on the importance of the data. The OSX86 machine runs beautifuly, with many weeks’ work of uptime, albeit with some trouble which I’ve managed to troubleshoot (see below).
#STOP SOFTRAID UPDATE PRO#
Granted, there are some glitches (my MacBook Pro kernel occasionaly panics with the ExpressCard on boot up), but data reliability is not jeopardized as with other chipsets.
port multiplication, hot swapping – as well as stability, compared to the newer 6Gb/s offerings from other manufacturers. Based on my (limited) research, this archaic chip from Silicon Image provides much better functionality – e.g.
#STOP SOFTRAID UPDATE DRIVERS#
Apparently, even the ExpressCard3/4 variants of the Si3132 chip, which are widely available, work quite well with the latest drivers from Sonnet – last updated on November 29, 2011. It’s attached to my HackPro via a two-port Sonnet Tempo E2P (mini PCIe) card, so some of the information in this post will be specific to this (Silicon Image 3132-based) card. It is compact, quiet and stylish, plus: the disks can be swapped without the use of special tools/frames, which makes it very convenient. Another very nice enclosure: the Sharkoon 5-bay eSATA/USB box.
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