Topic: Better Hard Disk Controller Support

[Darren Garrett]

If there is an area that E-Smith is lacking, it's hard drive controller support.

There needs to be a much wider range of both IDE and SCSI contoller support.

I wish for native High-point controller support, so it would be possible to install E-Smith on my 120GB Raid array.

Thanks.

[Mike Drummond]

I agree !!
I also have purchaed a highpoint (370) IDE raid controller based on Linux support only to find it is not compatible with SME 5.0.   These controllers are a very cost effective way of providing raid 0/1 for a small server.  They appear to be targeted at the lower end of the market which is where SME also fits.   I hope the next version will provide support these and other similar offerings.

Cheers

[JeromeV]

The problem comes from highpoint who didn't provide drivers sources but compiled modules for redhat (7.0 &7.1) kernel.
I asked them many times but no response from them ...

[Kelvin]

Hi JeromeV,

I did get a reply from Highpoint when I asked for their driver source files. Basically, the answer is NO.

Sadly, this is not limited to Highpoint only or storage controllers only.

The MAIN problem as I see it is the non-standard kernel used by SME 5. I actually wish that the next kernel will be a standard one. Fixes not only storage controller driver problems but every other RH 7.1 hardware driver issues too as most manufacturers will release 7.0 or 7.1 drivers but not non-standard ones.

Kelvin

[Charlie Brady]

JeromeV wrote:

> The problem comes from highpoint who didn't provide drivers
> sources but compiled modules for redhat (7.0 &7.1) kernel.

But only for the orginal 7.0 and 7.1 kernels, not for each update as it is released.

But in any case, I have read a review which suggests that the highpoint raid controller performs no bettter, and perhaps not as well as, the software raid which is supported in the linux kernel (and by the SME server).

Regards

Charlie

[Kelvin]

Performance isn't always the key issue when deciding to use RAID (especially with mirroring). I would think that Fault Tolerance is more the deciding factor.

Eg. If you use IDE hard drives connected to the same IDE Bus (in master and slave mode), you could end up in a situation whereby if say the master drive fails, the secondary drive may often end up being not accessible as well unless the failed drive is removed and the slave drive re-jumpered as master or have the failed master replaced.

However, using a hardware RAID controller, if you had the drives on separate channels, the controller usually can automatically switch to using the secondary channel if the primary one dies on you.

Just a thought.

Cheers,

Kelvin

[John]

@Kelvin,

You are right about that issue, but on both you must power off your Server before you exchange the harddrives...and with the software solution with raid you only have to jumper your slave to Master and put another harddrive in the server and your are ready again.

Question:

Must both the drivers have the same gb's. or can i use master 30 GB and Slave 40 GB ????????

have not tested that , just want to know for future use of Raid.

With my Best Regards,
John Konings
Netherlands.

[John]

@Kelvin,

You are right about that issue, but on both you must power off your Server before you exchange the harddrives...and with the software solution with raid you only have to jumper your slave to Master and put another harddrive in the server and your are ready again.

Question:

Must both the drivers have the same gb's. or can i use master 30 GB and Slave 40 GB ????????

have not tested that , just want to know for future use of Raid.

With my Best Regards,
John Konings
Netherlands.

[Kelvin]

Hi John,

Actually, whether you need to power off the System or not depends on your RAID controller and the removable drive rack you are using. On a RAID card that supports this function (I actually have not checked with regards to the Highpoint though - usually high end controllers will support this), if you have suitable IDE removable racks - with keyed power lock functions for example, you could actually remove a failed drive and replace it without the need to power down the server. And again, as long as the card supports it, the card could detect the drive replacement and automatically begin a rebuild process on the new drive - all without needing to power down the server. Remember, as far as the server is concerned, there is only ever one drive connected to it. The hardware RAID controller hides the fact that there is more than 1 drive present. This option does NOT exist for a software RAID solution.

If you use dissimilar drives in your RAID pack, the smallest drive in the pack determines what the RAID pack becomes. However, you should NEVER replace a failed drive with one of a smaller capacity.

Cheers,

Kelvin

[Brian Henderson]

The HighPoint 370 controller does provide Hot Swappable drives using the correct IDE mountable casings.

Also in regards to speed on my Dual PIII933MHz system the performance is second to none it is very very close to the speed i get with data throughput on my other machine using SCSI LVD drives at 80Mb/s.

I have found that the HighPoint RAID card to be one of the better investments that I have made due to the extra speed and robustness that it gives