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BAARF was invented by James Morle on Wednesday the 4th
of June, 2003, in the Grange hotel outside Birmingham while having a beer or
two with Mogens Nørgaard.
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On the following day - Thursday the 5th of June,
which happens to be the Danish national holiday celebrating our constitution -
the Battle Agaist Any Raid Five initiative was announced jointly by
James and Mogens in front of the UK Oracle User Group UNIX Special Interest
Group meeting at the Grange hotel.
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Both announcers were careful to sport the “Enough is Enough”
look (including arms folded across the chest) while delivering the message to
about 80 delegates.
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It’s important to note, that RAID-3, -4, and -5 are all
included in the initiative, so the F in BAARF both stands for Five, Four, and
…err… Free.
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The reason for BAARF is that we’ve had it. Enough is Enough.
For 15 years a lot of the world’s best database experts have been arguing back
and forth with people (vendors and others) about the pros and cons of RAID-3,
-4 and -5.
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Cary Millsap has written excellent articles on RAID
technologies that should have stopped the use- and pointless discussions many
years ago. Many others have written splendid articles about it as well. Many.
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James Morle and others have written books where they
discussed the uselessness of RAID-F stuff.
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It has been the same arguments, the same mistakes, the same
misunderstandings that have guided the discussions for all those years.
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The same frustrations from people that knew RAID-F is not a
good choice.
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The laws of Nature are still solidly in place and are not
going to be changed by RAID-F vendors anytime soon.
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So we’ve decided to stop arguing and debating with people
about it. We will lower our blood pressure permanently by refusing to have any
more arguments about it.
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We’re done. It’s done. Everything has been said. It’s time
for action – and making up your mind.
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You can join BAARF. Or not. You’re either in or not.
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We will of course form the BAARF Party, and we’ll arrange
various BAARF Party Conventions where we’ll proudly display our logo, which
says “I’m NOT talking anymore about RAID-5. Join us or not.” – or something to
that effect.
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We will collect the usual horror stories about RAID-F stuff
and customers being cheated first, and surprised later.
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The BAARF party will have its own equivalent of the Iraqi
Information Minister to deliver key notes at their conventions.
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But no more discussions.
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Birmingham, 6th of June, 2003-06-06
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James Morle & Mogens Nørgaard
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