Re: Informix 7.x and RAID 5

Well, after sending out my last piece of mail I received a few letters commenting on my opinions. I apoligize if I made anyone a little defensive or upset because of my views. I'm not (as my letters may imply ;-) ) a RAID basher! RAID can be a very good and cost effective alternative to mirroring. The point of my letters was not to bash RAID or any vendor who develops or sells RAID subsystems. My point was to let everyone see the potential problems with using RAID with Informix OnLine fragmentation. It will work but it's hard to guarentee where the data will end up on subsystem when you fragment data that has already been fragmented. There are many benifits to using Informix mirroring and Informix fragmentation. Without mirroring you cannot get split reads and without fragmentation you cannot get fragmentation elimination. With RAID you can get a speedy (read) system and one that's very easy to maintain (with DG you just flip a switch!) and very fault tolerant. It's a trade off and one that should not be taken lightly. Mike These are my opinions. Not my employer's or my friends'.