Topic: Cheap Hardware RAID

[julian]

Hi All,
I've never really been a fan of software raid and noticed that these days a lot of mobo's come with some kind of hardware raid built in.
http://www.cclcomputers.co.uk/specs/motherboard/asus/p4p800del/spec.htm
or
http://www.cclcomputers.co.uk/specs/motherboard/msi/k8t800/spec.htm
Just wondering if anyone has experience with anything like this.
All the best,
Julian

[Reinhold]

Julian,

What you see is NOT exactly HARDWARE Raid...

quote:
The VIA IDE-RAID controller supports two-channel ATA 133,
enabling users to build Maximum 4 ATA-133 hard disk
as an RAID0, 1 , 0+1 , JBOD array....
(or Promise orHighpoint on-board  Raid setups...)

...are merely MORE IDE CHANNELS
...with some bios addition to let the cpu do the raid operations ...

That will (mostly) not work with SME...

BUT you can have the same (even better) performance using Linux-Software-Raid.
SME 6.x does have Raid "built in" and for just a RAID 1 with  two disks
...all you have to do is "put in 2 drives and answer the appropriate setup question with YES.

For a full blown software Raid guide have a look at:
http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Software-RAID-HOWTO.html

Also there is quite a lot of Raid talk on the board - here.

If you have a GHz class cpu I'd recommend you to test Linux Software Raid 5 with one of these boards.
Previous performance issues are "a thing of the past"  
If the budget doesn't allow to buy a controller, go for the software stuff
- several installations I did are working stable, safe and fast ...
no need for the controller alone if you won't get a backplane, and hotplug hardware anyway.


Regards

[julian]

Thanks all that.
Ended up using this
http://www.cclcomputers.co.uk/specs/motherboard/asus/p4p800del/spec.htm
Works very well - SATA has to be configured in BIOS to run in IDE emulation mode and the gigabit networking required a 3Com driver to be compiled.
You're spot on with the RAID - it's not true hardware RAID just a fudge that needs WinXP drivers to work. I'm using the e-smith RAID and it's going very well.

[djohen]

In addition to first post,

Via released Linux drivers for the
VT6410, VT6420, VT6421, VT8237 RAID controllers

so that also includes the asus P4P800.

http://www.viaarena.com/?PageID=297#raid

I will have succesfully compiled them myself, but did not test the driver yet.
Maybe somebody has???

currently i am still using the 2 (raid)ideports as standard ide devices in combination with Linux Software RAID.
more information in this thread. about patching the ide-driver and about the raid driver.

http://forums.viaarena.com/messageview.cfm?catid=28&threadid=41397&FTVAR_MSGDBTABLE=&STARTPAGE=1

[jeremy]

We'd like to try out the VIA SATA driver that you compiled for SME.  It might help resolve the issue we've been having installing SME on VIA SATA RAID.

http://forums.contribs.org/index.php?topic=23503.0

Any chance you could send the a disk driver img as well?

[1111]

RAID.

Good, fast, cheap.

Choose any two......

[Reinhold]

"F",

IMO repeating old thinking isn't getting you very far in today's IT world  

GOOD ... as in "8 HDs in a RAID5 are certainly better (as in safer) than 8 single drives"
FAST ... as in "those drives powered by a 2GHz+ CPU will most likely outrun your 100Mbit Ethernet"
CHEAP ... as in "cost only the time of setting it up" (which is +2min install in an SME with Raid1 15min for Raid5) is as cheap as it comes these days

TIME TO LEAVE THE PAST BEHIND ... at least as far as I'm concerned

Give software raid a try guys&gal's
(and don't go for them flakey RAID-BIOS-Controllers )

Reinhold

[icpix]

<which is +2min install in an SME with Raid1 15min for Raid5>
I thought e-smith (now SME Server) only did software RAID1.
Please would you confirm that software RAID5 is feasible/possible?

best wishes, Robert

[1111]

"F",

IMO repeating old thinking isn't getting you very far in today's IT world

That's current thinking, not the ignorant fanboy talk of those advocating IDE/SATA RAID on anything except a nearline backup.

Give software raid a try guys&gal's
(and don't go for them flakey RAID-BIOS-Controllers )

Of course. You're the one that has seen a live system go to misery when a drive actually fails and the OS doesn't rebuild it properly, right? You're the one that tells the beancounters that you have to reboot the server in order to fix a drive issue, are you? You're the one that would advocate IDE/SATA knowing full well you cannot hot swap them on a live software RAID?

Good luck.

Hardware and SCSI. Leave real RAID where it belongs. IDE/SATA RAID is a standing joke for anything except nearline backup. There's more to RAID than simply the speed of your CPU. There's management and repair facilities that software RAID can't touch. There's I/O that is available on SCSI and SAS that IDE/SATA just cannot match and no amount of schoolboy benchmarks on fanboy websites are going to change the real world where time is money.

[Reinhold]

icpix,

CONFIRMED
...afaik there isn't a real Linux distro left that doesn't do software raid5...

MAYBE I didn't make myself absolutely clear though as to the RAID5 capabilities of SME -sorry-
* RAID1 comes as an option in the setup procedure when more than 1 HD is detected ... basically you just "install 2nd HD, then - say: 'yes'"
* RAID5 (on SME) requires that you:
- install the raid5 HDs ... setup SME
- manually type a raidtab -file for your setup
- makefs that new setup
- complete fstab for your setup
(Note: a bootable raid5 setup on SME is different & a bit hardcore .-)

If you've got like 3 old HDs just play around a bit before getting serious .-)

Regards
Reinhold

[Reinhold]

"1111"anboy ...
you DO recognize EMOTICONS when you see them - do you ?

As to the rest "YES, yes & yes" would be the answers - if you would care to recognize them that is.

I have little problems with 'my' "beancounters" I (sort of) like them and I in addition I freely admit that:
- I am a SME "fanboy" (despite & due to my age)...
and IMnshO SME - e-smith rarely is about "management & repair facilities" and "hot swapping live hd's" and stuff.
??? have you (really) looked at this forum recently ...
 "what is the Linux command set"... is more like the teach of the day  (no insult to anyone here!!!)

- FWIW I'd 'send' you to be grilled by my beancounter...
if you'd have tried to buy a tape robot for any serious storage in the last 6 quarters !!!  
...but who cares this is "do I need a tape" SME  

what I'd care for is a newer joke (and maybe some more fun) from your side

Long live SME - for those who need and/or cherish it

Reinhold

P.S.: If you don't get it:
"I joked 'wrong time'" then
I (sort of) feel forced to add "wrong place" now
to your 'funky insults' - end of story