Future of RAIDFrame

[Robert Watson]

On Sat, 10 Jan 2004, Scott Long wrote:

> I started RAIDframe three years ago with the hope of bringing a proven
> and extensible RAID stack to FreeBSD.  Unfortunately, while it was made
> to work pretty well on 4.x, it has never been viable on 5.x; it never
> survived the introduction of GEOM and removal of the old disk layer. 
> I'm coming to the conclusion that I really don't have the time to work
> on it in my spare time.  Also, I've seen next to zero interest in it
> from others, except for the occasional reminder that it doesn't work. 
> 
> I still believe in it, and I still believe that it can be integrated
> into GEOM and become the all-singing-all-dancing raid engine for the OS. 
> It will probably never be an LVM stack, but I've also always believed
> that LVM and RAID are related but separate layers.  It can certainly
> build upon whatever LVM layer appears in GEOM.  All it needs is one or
> two other people to share some of the work and testing with me. 
> 
> I have a Work-In-Progress for converting and integrating it into GEOM on
> my home Perforce server.  It hasn't been touched in several months and I
> really don't see myself being able to finish alone it in the near
> future.  Since it's been hanging over my head for so long, I'm very,
> very close to just removing it and moving on.  If anyone has the
> interest AND time available to help out with keeping it, please let me
> know ASAP. 

While I recognize the reality of time constraints and developers, I think
it might not be a bad idea (regardless of the outcome here) to import the
RAIDFrame bits into the FreeBSD Perforce server, so that it's available
for reference should anyone pick this up now (or in the future). 

Robert N M Watson             FreeBSD Core Team, TrustedBSD Projects
robert at fledge.watson.org      Senior Research Scientist, McAfee Research