Railroad picture archives.net gone what do you guys use now

[nkalanaga]

And there's always the possibility of the RAID controller failing, in which case you still have the data, but no way to access it.

We never had that happen at my last job, so I have no idea what happens then.  Do you just install a new controller and go on, or does it have to be configured to match the particular drives and how they're arranged?

[peteski]

And there's always the possibility of the RAID controller failing, in which case you still have the data, but no way to access it.

We never had that happen at my last job, so I have no idea what happens then.  Do you just install a new controller and go on, or does it have to be configured to match the particular drives and how they're arranged?

Usually the metadata containing information about the RAID configuration is stored on the drives themselves, so a new controller will just read them and bring the RAID online. At least that was the case on the storage arrays I supported.  But in single-controller RAID some data that was held in the controller's cache could be lost.  The equipment I worked on had dual controllers in either active/passive  or active/active configuration, so if one controller controller failed or went offline, it would fail over to the other controller to seamlessly keep the storage array operational. Cache was mirrored (and battery backed-up) on both controllers, so that data was also preserved. Of course sometimes both controllers failed (for various reasons), and the cached data was lost.  In some cases replacement of failed components, resetting the array to factory fresh (blank) configuration and restoring data from the latest backup was the only option. If customer had no backups, things were pretty grim. Hiring data recovery company was the only hope (and not guaranteed to work).  Frequent backups to tape or another storage device, or replication to another array increases odds of keeping the data intact.

[nkalanaga]

Thank you!  Storing the controller data on the drives makes sense.

And, yes, if there are no backups, one is basically out of luck, especially if the drive(s) are physically damaged.

I back my system up every Sunday, although just a PC with a single internal drive.  At my last job, we did an incremental backup every night, and a full backup every weekend.  We didn't usually run on weekends (banking), so late Saturday night was an ideal time for a full backup.

[nickelplate759]

don't forget off-site backups!

[Chris333]

Hate if something happens to this: https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/

[mu26aeh]

Hate if something happens to this: https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/

Well as of 918pm eastern I can't access it currently

[Ed Kapuscinski]

Hate if something happens to this: https://www.rr-fallenflags.org/

Don't worry, I'm on it. That site is surprisingly small file size wise. Like, under 1GB from what I remember.

[nkalanaga]

It's working now, 2024-12-29 0028.