[clue-tech] RAID Cards

[adam bultman]

Kevin Fenzi wrote:

>>>>>>"femtoghoti" == femtoghoti  <femtoghoti at gmail.com> writes:
>>>>>>            
>>>>>>
>
>femtoghoti> i am looking to purchase a raid card to run raid5 accross
>femtoghoti> 8 drives.  i am currently looking at either a HighPoint or
>femtoghoti> 3Ware card.  does anyone have any expierience setting up
>femtoghoti> either of these brands of hardware?  are there know
>femtoghoti> pitfalls with specific chipsets or cards in general?
>
>femtoghoti> any input would be helpful before i 'commit' to a
>femtoghoti> purchase.
>
>Of the two I would reccomend the 3ware as well.
>
>  
>
Not sure if LSI makes SATA RAID cards, but LSI is pretty nice.

>Another option you may want to consider is Linux software raid.
>http://linux.yyz.us/why-software-raid.html
>
>  
>
That's the crappiest, most deceptive and moreover, incorrect  list I've 
ever seen.

I'll just say this: Don't do a software RAID.   They are slow (despite 
what that list says), they perform horribly under high load, and 
replacing drives in software RAIDs is a million times harder than on a 
hot-swappable hardware RAID. (Time it takes me to replace a RAID drive 
in a backplane: 10 seconds. Time it takes me to replace failed software 
RAID1 drive: ~2 hours, 99% of which is spent at the console, running 
grub/lilo, configuring, waiting for drive syncs...)

If you're going to do a RAID, do it right and do it hardware (and buy a 
GOOD RAID CARD). Or, do it the best way, and buy a netapp.  If you 
consider the time it takes to manage a netapp versus a hardware raid 
versus a software raid, the netapp pays for itself rather quickly with 
easy administration, excellent built-in protection, and uptime.


Adam



>
>kevin
>  
>
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