Topic: SME 6.x, SATA HDD, RAID

[dmay]

I am interested in gathering experiences from installs of SME 6.x + SATA HDD's + RAID.  Either S/W or H/W RAID.  Please report your results and list your make/model of M/B, HDD and/or RAID CTRLS used.

Regards,

Darrell

[jjose velez]

I have a 3ware RAID 5 with 3 Seagate 160GB SATA Hotswap bay running SME 6.  Also It has a DDS 5 with tapeware 7.0 with the disaster recovery cd and it works perfect.  

This server is used for demo and spare server for clients.

[huflueck]

I assembled a few Intel compatible servers, mainly Asus motherboards, using LSI IDE Raid controllers.
http://www.lsilogic.com/products/raid_storage_adapters/index.html
ATA and Serial-ATA - They all work great!

Software RAID implemented on a few ASUS barebone AP140R using onboard ATA controller.
No problems with SW RAID implementation at all.

The Viatech IDE Raid chips on Asus boards do not have proper drivers under Linux. It's the same for Promise controllers.

Note about SMART:
Some "problems" detected/resolved when activated IDE S.M.A.R.T disk monitoring on ASUS barebone AP140R. I replaced the disks when indicated and it was ok.
But the NOT healthy reported disks ran fine on other IDE controllers (the LSI for instance), even with activated SMART also. So this might also be a controller specific issue and has nothing to do with the SW Raid under Linux.

Overall experience:
Serial-ATA IS faster than ATA but not much faster than ATA-133. Focus should be set on disk technology (RPM, cache) and stability anyway.
Better use RAID-5 with ATA-100/133 than RAID-1 with Serial-ATA.
Give enough RAM to the OS and implement SCSI-RAID, if throughput is important.
I use ICP-Vortex controllers for SCSI-RAID machines since years (the gdth Linux driver) - top products.

[ltc6netspec]

I am trying to use a promise tx4000 raid 1 with 2 WD 40GB with SME 6.x.  I have the drivers from promise, but I need to install them from disk any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

[ltc6netspec]

I am trying to use a promise tx4000 raid 1 with 2 WD 40GB with SME 6.x.  I have the drivers from promise, but I need to install them from disk any suggestions.

Thanks in advance.

[julian]

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=21300.msg84765#msg84765

[rhynes]

I have tried to install SME 6.01.01 with LSI Logic SERIAL ATA RAID Controllers and ADAPTEC Serial RAID Controllers.

NO LUCK AT ALL.

Upon the initial install from CD, E-Smith asks if you want to install drivers.

You respond yes and when you get to the "I Accept" screen the install process stops, complaining that there are no hard drives to install to.

I would like to know how these other people got RAID controllers working in their systems, unless they are using other drives to boot from and using the RAID for data only.

[mbachmann]

I never tried SATA on esmith because the SATA support is added in Kernel version 2.6 and up?

[brian2hand]

HI All,

Does this mean I cannot install SME on my new server with intel mainboard and 2x serial ATA drives? I have bios EV91510a.86a. I also have an adaptec serial ATA RAID card

I have tried installing SME with and without the RAID card and it will not go past the choose drivers & accept screen - it keeps saying no drives found.

I have tried changing BIOS settings to no avail.

Is there any way to get it running or have I just wasted a small fortune on a white elephant server?

[mbachmann]

I've learned that SATA support is possible with 2.4 Kernels but you have to insmod the proper drivers or the vendor like LSI, 3ware, Adaptec, Promise etc have to support the proper drivers.

[phil93]

i got the same pb on a dell poweredge 1600 raid scsi,

I have tried to install SME 6.01.01 with LSI Logic SERIAL ATA RAID Controllers and ADAPTEC Serial RAID Controllers.

NO LUCK AT ALL.

Upon the initial install from CD, E-Smith asks if you want to install drivers.

You respond yes and when you get to the "I Accept" screen the install process stops, complaining that there are no hard drives to install to.

I would like to know how these other people got RAID controllers working in their systems, unless they are using other drives to boot from and using the RAID for data only.