[olug] SATA Drives

[Obi-Wan]

> I certainly wouldn't run it in a non-redundant configuration on a
> server (RAID with a hot spare) but it works fine for storing big files
> that see limited access.
> 
> I have 2 SAN's with a total of about 20 TB (that's Terrabytes) of SATA disk.

I'll echo that.  SATA typically has a much lower duty cycle than SCSI
or FC (fiber channel) drives.  We have a SAN at work with several hundred
TB of storage.  It's zoned into a primary area that handles all real
time access and a backup area that only stores mirrored copies of the
primary area, in case we lose a cabinet in the primary area.  Our primary
area uses nothing but FC drives with a 100% duty cycle (costing about
$2500 per 300GB drive).  Our backup area uses all SATA drives with a
20% duty cycle, which cost about 1/3 as much.  We lose a lot more drives
in the primary area than we do in the backup area, so SATA works just
fine for us as backups.

-- 
Ben "Obi-Wan" Hollingsworth                             obiwan at jedi.com
   The stuff of earth competes for the allegiance I owe only to the
     Giver of all good things, so if I stand, let me stand on the
       promise that You will pull me through.  -- Rich Mullins