[SOLVED] Virtual HDD with real ports?

[mk112]

hi everyone,

A quick question I failed to google

Is there any marketed solution out there which simulates HDD types and present a virtual disk for data, yet provides different physical ports (such as SCSI, SATA, PATA, or even ST506) for real, physical connection?
I mean something similar to external HDDs, except the PC it gets connected to "thinks" this was an internal, physical disk attached to it?

If not, I have very limited hardware knowledge (I'm a software guy). How complex would it be to build something like this? (and if "achievable", where to start?)


Thanks!
Mark

 

[Deleted member 14196]

It would probably be more difficult than you might think. And where would it get the real connectors? What would this be even used for? You’re talking about virtualizing hardware which is already done by people like VMware but you don’t get a physical connection via a real port or maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean by a real port

Basically you would have to write software to emulate the different types of drives and then you’d have to have someway to drive hardware ports so that still means you need electronics involved it’s not just software

 

[mk112]

It would probably be more difficult than you might think. And where would it get the real connectors? What would this be even used for? You’re talking about virtualizing hardware which is already done by people like VMware but you don’t get a physical connection via a real port or maybe I’m misunderstanding what you mean by a real port

Thanks for coming back. By real port I mean what I listed as examples: SATA cable, PATA cable, ST506, SCSI, etc. My "dream hardware" is a virtual disk park having disks with different capabilities (mainly transfer speed limit to "simulate" old HDDs), and physical connectors I can plug in to actual PCs, which support only a particular HDD / port type (this would be the 'area of use' you asked about).

My company has some very old hardware systems which it sill has to support and we realized working with actual disks is much harder than if we could virtualize the disks (and disks only) but keep at least some of the real thing's key properties.
So the real, old PC would still be connected with cable to a HDD (it thinks), but behind the curtains, we would have a VDD and physical connectors.

 

[Unolocogringo]

What you are describing is similar to a NAS box. Network attached storage.
You can buy one pre-made. I use a Synology 2 drive box.
Or you can build your own using an old computer with the ports you need and available software.
https://www.techradar.com/best/best-nas-and-media-server-distros

 

[mk112]

What you are describing is similar to a NAS box.(....)

It resembles but not similar. The goal is to have 'n' physical disks (likely some SSDs), several VDDs on them "emulating" a HDD type (like MFM), and having those VDDs "attached" (allocated to) a physical HDD connector type, such as SATA or ST506.
So If I plug this box's MFM connector to a very old PC's motherboard, named PC "thinks" it has an internal HDD in it (but in fact, it's a VDD on the other computer's SSD).
And do the same with other ports.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

I do not know of anything that can do that so good luck on your hunt.

 

[mk112]

I do not know of anything that can do that so good luck on your hunt.

Yeah, I'm facing the same issue
And like I said, I'm not good with hardware, so unsure if HDD connector port "conversion" (modern whatever to e.g. ST506) is doable or how complicated it could be.
Thanks anyway!

 

[Ralston18]

I am curious about the requirements.

Are you, as a software developer, trying to determine if some software application X will work with those old hardware systems that use varying types of HDD's , SSDs, and different types of physical connectors?

And determine/establish some relevant compatibility requirements and performance parameters?

And the current/apparent objective is to emulate those varying drives and connectors in a virtual environment - correct?

Agree with previous posts: complicated and difficult.

= = = =

Are you able to share more information and detail?

For the most part, if I follow correctly, you may just need a test environment with a few old drives, connectors, adapters, enclosures, etc..

Sort of a "tool box" that allows you to connect and test any given drive/connector combination into a computer running software X and then measuring the test drive's performance accordingly. E.g., Read and Write speeds perhaps. And software X does what software X is supposed to do accordingly....

Using a VDD environment, as I understand it all, adds levels of complexity that could skew the measurements. But slow drives and old connectors will still be slow drives and old connectors. And you are still having to make all sorts of physical connections anyway.

VDD may not be needed. More details, if possible, are needed.

Just my thoughts on the matter.

 

[USAFRet]

I'm also curious.

How does "drive space" in a virtual environment need to reflect SAS, SATA, ST506, whatever?

 

[mk112]

As of the "software side", we have a virtual everything so testing is sorted out mostly, but there are some issues come out on the real deal only. Hence we want to do stuff on those as well.

So what we want is to work with the actual hardware, which we also do, however, as we need different configurations / scenarios (as different versions were released of the same thing to customers 20-30 years ago), it's time consuming to set those up - backup / restore HDDs, especially the old ones, not mentioning the challange to put hands on these hardware, or monitor these old systems with 'modern tools' (try to install anything on a Windows NT 4 and similar issues).

This is where the idea came from. What if we had a PC, something like a blade or NAS or whatever, a computer with a lot of VDDs, i.e. full of virtual disks, and on those the different scenarios & configs, and we could plug in this "megamind" to the old computer, with whatever HDD controller that has, and make it think it has an internal, physical disk attached to it?

In other words, the goal is to virtualize the 'setup' of having (let's say) 10 MFM HDDs, all with different OS, configs, whatever, yet having just one physical computer ('old PC') running on these.
Whoever needs whatever scenario, picks the MFM disk having that installed and set up, turns off the computer, plugs in the disk, turns on, boom, he has his thing, and the next guy the next day can do the same with his config and scenario.
Also, 'resetting' the scenario on VDD is painless: overwrite the dirty disk with the master copy. On the physical disk, it's not fun.

 

[Deleted member 14196]

Even if you could emulate them or virtualized them you still have the issue where things crop up in the real world versus the virtual one so I don’t see how that solves anything for you

And I clearly do not understand the requirements such as why somebody would be testing with such OLD drives like MFM

 

[mk112]

It would solve the issue of a) not having enough HW and b) not being able to reset status to a starting point.

Because in some business areas there are 20-30-40 years warranty on items.

 

[kanewolf]

It would solve the issue of a) not having enough HW and b) not being able to reset status to a starting point.

Because in some business areas there are 20-30-40 years warranty on items.

I worked many years in high performance computing. There are not 20 - 30 - 40 year "warranty" on anything with electronics. Typically there are 5 years of vendor support. You may be able to pay for extended support for another 5. After 10 years, you are generally without support.

 

[USAFRet]

Any of the current VM tools can attach multiple virtual drives to a VM instance.

I'm not aware of any that can simulate the different properties of various drive types.

They see a VDI, which could be just about anything. An ISO file, flash drive, USB connected HDD, whatever.