running degraded RAID to save power

[Dan Ritter]

On Sat, Jan 24, 2009 at 03:44:55PM -0500, Matthew Gillen wrote:
> So I just ordered the parts to replace my home file server, and as usual I 
> bought two identical drives with the intention of putting them in a RAID-1 
> array.
> 
> Given a lot of the anecdotal evidence I've heard about identical drives 
> purchased at the same time (thus likely to come from the same batch) failing 
> very close to each other, I was thinking about a possible solution:
> 
> Set up the RAID-1 array with both disks, do the base install/configuration. 
>   Then use hdparm to power-down one of the drives.  Have a script bring the 
> drive up every few days and let RAID re-sync it, then shut it down again.

Two different approaches:

- Don't use the RAID layer; rsync the disks as desired.

- Don't use the RAID layer, and don't copy the whole disk. Use
  rsnapshot to get copies of /home, /etc and a package list.

I'm doing the second of those approaches right now on my home
workstation. The second disk is spun down except for once every
24 hours, in the middle of the night.

-dsr-


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