Dependable networked RAID for the open source community

This article details a design for cheap and dependable networked RAID storage for the open source community. In this context, "networked block devices" may substitute for some of the hard disks in a RAID array. Special mechanisms have been introduced for reporting, recording and recovery which together work to lower re-synchronisation transfer totals, lower latency, and in general provide an intelligent control that recognises and compensates for frequent network brown-outs, without involving the administrator or compromising the array. The practical outcome is a "fast and intelligent" open source driver drop-in for the existing Linux kernel software RAID subsystem, with further applications.