[Dovecot] Better to use a single large storage server or multiple smaller for mdbox?

[Stan Hoeppner]

On 4/13/2012 10:31 AM, Ed W wrote:
> On 13/04/2012 13:33, Stan Hoeppner wrote:

>> In closing, I'll simply say this:  If hardware, whether a mobo-down SATA
>> chip, or a $100K SGI SAN RAID controller, allowed silent data corruption
>> or transmission to occur, there would be no storage industry, and we'll
>> all still be using pen and paper.  The questions you're asking were
>> solved by hardware and software engineers decades ago.  You're fretting
>> and asking about things that were solved decades ago.
> 
> So why are so many people getting excited about it now?

"So many"?  I know of one person "getting excited" about it.

Data densities and overall storage sizes and complexity at the top end
of the spectrum are increasing at a faster rate than the
consistency/validation mechanisms.  That's the entire point of the
various academic studies on the issue.  Note that the one study required
a sample set of 1.5 million disk drives.  If the phenomenon were a
regular occurrence as you would have everyone here believe, they could
have used a much smaller sample set.

Ed, this is an academic exercise.  Academia leads industry.  Almost
always has.  Academia blows the whistle and waves hands, prompting
industry to take action.

There is nothing normal users need to do to address this problem.  The
hardware and software communities will make the necessary adjustments to
address this issue before it filters down to the general user community
in a half decade or more--when normal users have a 10-20 drive array of
500TB to 1PB or more.

Having the prestigious degree that you do, you should already understand
the relationship between academic research and industry, and the
considerable lead times involved.

-- 
Stan