Topic: Raid Controllers -what works?

[chris g]

Does any one know which one support linux, or currently have a raid controller in their e-smith box?  I really wouls like to know.

Thanks.
chris glanzer

[Glenn]

Hi Chris,

         I have been using the 3ware Escalade 6400 raid controller for some time now trouble free. They just upgraded the firmware to allow for RAID 5 with a minimum of 3 ATA-66 drives(they no longer have to match in size or manufacturer). Raid 5 in my opinion is the best configuration to use as it not only gives performance improvement through data striping(raid 0) but also data security through use of Raid 4 parity. It includes a web interface daemon which allows for monitoring, configuring the RAID array, and for hot swapping a drive should one of the raid members become degraded. The board is very resonable considering its performance and reliablility; about $249 or less if you search around on the web. The only thing I have run into is tape backup problems when using a Seagate Hornet(STT220000A) IDE Travan-5 tape drive. Since the 6400 board appears to e-smith as a scsi controller, it may cause problems with the tape drive being recognised properly....especially if not in the system at install time. If have posted my findings on getting the drive to work a couple of ways on this forum which you can check out. Good luck.


Glenn

[Engelmann]

YES - 3ware is a very cheap and powerfull raidsolution! only the powerdown feature of ide does not work

[Eric Womack]

I just got one of those cards.  Would you mind posting a walk-through HOWTO on how you installed e-smith using it?

Eric

[Glenn]

Installation Guide for 3ware 6400 &  e-smith Server & Gateway 4.1.1

***   These are only my suggestions for installing this card.... you can    ***
*** use whatever method you choose that accomplish the same goals!!! ***

1. First download the latest firmware and RedHat 7 driver modules from 3ware's site. This is a must to
    have everything work properly when using Raid5... won't hurt for other raid modes either!!

2. Install the new bios firmware, carefully following the steps 3ware recommends.(You must do this
    from a bootable DOS disk) The original 3w-xxxx.o driver module supplied with e-smith will work
    fine to get you going even with the new Raid 5 firmware so don't worry. You will update to the new
    driver module later after installing e-smith.

3. Setup the 3ware controller with 3 drives as a RAID 5 array using to enter the bios
    setup screen

4. Install e-smith 4.1.1 as usual and configure for your purposes. At this point you need only a minimal
    configuration as this is all you need for setting up the 3ware driver.( Don't setup an entire production
    system  yet!!!)

5. I suggest creating a temporary ibay(windows share, no FTP access) where you can copy all the
    necessary files you download from the 3ware site. ( Hint: Unzip all of the downloaded 3ware
    zip files into seperate folders in this ibay using Winzip8 or whatever for easier access)

6. Using SSH(secure shell) or telnet if you must, log into the server as root and go to the ibay
    containing the files you just downloaded.  (i.e. cd  /home/e-smith/files/ibays/"temp ibay name"/files)
   *** You can log in as root by pressing on the keyboard to get a login prompt... the root
    password is the same as your "admin" password. ***

7. Create a temporary working directory as /temp for copying the downloaded files and running
     installations from.

8. Copy over the original 3ware driver module in  /lib/modules/2/2/16-22/scsi  directory with the
    new Raid5 enabled driver module 3w-xxxx.o in the RH7 subdirectory of the unzipped driver file
    in the temp ibay and change the ownership and permissions to match those of all other modules in
    the directory if necessary with   chmod 644 3w-xxxx.o

9. Re-boot at this point to make sure the server boots with the new raid5 driver installed.

10. If all is well...Copy the install.3dm & 3dm-lnx.tgz files to the /temp directory and do step 11.

11. Setup the 3ware "3dm" deamon to allow Web based Raid administration @
     http://server_ip_address:1080/

   *** Note: Must use the IP address and not the hosts's name for 3DM to work ***

     This is done by running the ./install.3dm script now in the /temp directory.

    *** Use my modified script for e-smith running in RunLevel7... do not use original ***

11. The 3dmd deamon should report starting properly by displaying [OK] ... if not check the
      installation

12. If all went well... delete all files in the /temp directory and remove /temp  by typing :

                    rmdir /temp

13. Reboot the server and look for the  3dm deamon to start correctly and all should
      be fine.

14. On most systems, ATAPI tape drives will work without any change as SCSI emulation is enabled
      on all systems except those which already have a real SCSI host adapter (3ware appears as one).
      However, on systems which contain a SCSI controller and will utilize an IDE tape drive you must
      make the appropriate changes to the e-smith configuration scripts. You can do so simply by typing
      the following commands :

                    /sbin/e-smith/db configuration setprop backup Device /dev/nht0
                    /sbin/e-smith/signal-event conf-backup

       These changes will configure to e-smith server to dynamically load the ide-tape.o module rather
        than the ide-scsi.o scsi emulation module when a backup occurs either manually or by a cron job
        setup through the e-smith web manager. Now all relevent tape drive commands will use /dev/nht0
        instead of /dev/nst0.

15. Now apply all the updated RPM's to get the system up to date with security and bug fixes.
      At the very least,  you must update the the e-smith-backup RPM to insure proper tape backups.                    
                   
16. Server should now be ready for normal use!!!

*** Sorry that the formatting is a little screwed up but my original rich text file did
not paste very well into the forum. But the content works fine. ***
Hope this little install guide is helpful, if you send me an e-mail I will reply with my modified 3dm install script!!

Glenn

[Jason Ebacher]

The RAID on a KT7a board doesnot work (KT7 is the same) , I was kind of bummed, but used software mirroring instead, at some point I hope Esmith will support this boards RAID controler...

Jason