[nylug-talk] Recommendations for encrypted tape drive(s)?

[Chris Knadle]

On Tuesday 04 March 2008, Sunny Dubey wrote:
> On Tuesday 04 March 2008 12:28:05 pm Chris Knadle wrote:
> >    So for all of these reasons I would personally tend to have more faith
> > in a software encryption solution rather than a hardware one, even with
> > the obvious downsides.  I'm not making a recommendation of one over the
> > other overall, though.  I don't have a lot of experience with tape
> > drives, and no personal experience with tape drives that do internal
> > encryption.
>
> I have very similar sentiments.  I have limited experience with tapes as
> well, but I think of additional tape functionality as a lot like RAID: 
> Much of what used to be done in hardware, is now done with software with
> little differences.

   Many "hardware" RAID cards are actually doing software RAID in the driver, 
as you probably know.  In terms of design it makes sense because it reduces 
both hardware and firmware design costs, similar to the infamous "winmodems".  
Woe onto thee that has to load a proprietary binary blob driver for one of 
these.

   So likewise, these days if I was going to build a RAID, I'd use the Linux 
MD drivers to make a software RAID, because that's a solution that isn't 
hardware specific.  Most of the Linux admins/users I know that build RAIDs 
seem happier with MD software RAID for the same reasons.  [Especially if 
they've been burnt by not being able to find an exact replacement for a prior 
hardware RAID card.]

   But I've also built hardware RAIDs if that was what the customer really 
wanted.  As long as it's a well-known manufacturer that will have longevity 
on the product line to allow replacing a failed card within the planned 
lifetime of the RAID, then that's probably okay.  But knowing how long that 
will actually be, well...

   -- Chris

-- 

Chris Knadle
Chris.Knadle at coredump.us