A bit less than 6,000 files into a 25,000 file transfer, Beast’s RAID controller crapped out. I was forced to hard-reset the machine and start the transfer again. Luckily I’m using ‘rsync’ so only files that aren’t already on the Netware server will be copied over. If I had to start the whole transfer over after every crash, I’d never get this done.

At least, that’s the way I’m looking at it now: that Beast crashes are inevitable after X amount of data moves off the drive in one steady stream. Apparently sustained data transfer is a big no-no with this 3Ware RAID controller. Dammit.

Oh yeah. You don’t know what Beast is. Well, the Enco broadcast audio system has a central server, in our case a Netware server named KGON_FS. (Clever, wot?) I was tasked with building a cheap standby server in case of emergencies, and so Beast was born. It’s a fairly large chassis with a fairly large quantity of drive space packed inside. It runs RedHat Linux 7.0, with some customization of course.

Every night during the week, Beast synchronizes its storage to match precisely what’s on the Netware server. And in cases like tonight, where the Netware server’s large storage volume has been rebuilt, Beast is the source for restoring data to the newly created volume.

I’m praying there aren’t any crashes while I’m at home later today. Well, I would be praying if I believed in a particular deity to pray to. You get the idea. I can’t live here at the office, really I can’t.