armijo@cs.unm.edu writes:
this would be very cool, or better yet: 'boot cdrom', which i have heard rumored several times , anyone at NetApp want to confirm/deny this may actually happen?
cdrom would be ok, better than floppies, but still limiting in other ways. With floppies, you can make new images as often as you like or need. With cdrom's, you are stuck unless you have a cd burner (which are more common place now) and the time to spend doing so.
I think a better solution would be to use the same media the digital cameras of today use. If you use the SmartMedia style, you are limited to the size of images (I think it only goes to 16MB right now). The CompactFlash cards are much sturdier and go to 96MB.
The great things with either of these formats are:
- cheap media - inexpensive media readers ($70 for a USB version) - good support across most OS'es for the readers - PCMCIA media adapters (so PCMCIA might be a good interface to the filer)
and:
- I can go to WalMart at 3AM and buy the media and card reader in case of an emergency
Including this as a peripheral with every filer is inexpensive (well, cheaper than a ZIP drive or a cdrom burner).
I realize there are many competing formats for the next generation of filer boot media, but the digital cameras are pretty wide spread now and the flash card format will be around a while.
Alex