[olug] Server Motherboard Recomendations.

[Aric]

The only non SCSI hardware raid cards I have used are 3ware 9650SE cards.  I
really like the 3DM2 web interface.  I love the ease of raid level
migration.  I had one go bad last week with memory buffer errors.  The sever
didn't crash, I disabled caching.  3ware Fedex overnight cross shipped the
replacement and I had it back up to full speed in less than 24 hours of the
incident.

I am thinking about getting a 9690SA since they have more cache and are the
same price,  I don't foresee myself using SAS but it doesn't seem bad to
have as an option.  Has anyone used one and if so how do they compare to the
9650SE.

Firmware raid is for pretend.  

I use old panty hose as "foam" since it is flexible it is easy to clean.....
just snap it like a bra.

Aric Aasgaard
aric at omahax.com

-----Original Message-----
From: olug-bounces at olug.org [mailto:olug-bounces at olug.org] On Behalf Of
Craig Wolf
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 9:09 AM
To: olug at olug.org
Subject: Re: [olug] Server Motherboard Recomendations.

Just for the sake of argument, I have had good luck with 3ware raid cards.
Only used them twice but with no issues at all.

Craig Wolf
Linux Web Server Support
Desktop/Network Specialist
402-715-6283
>>> Dan Linder <dan at linder.org> 03/23/09 8:31 AM >>>
>
> On Sunday 22 March 2009 20:53:42 Jay Bendon wrote:
> > I find this to be a very quality server motherboard, works well with my
> > raid card, but also has builtin software raid if you don't want a raid
> > card,


I've never used modern server-class motherboards, but my experience with the
integrated motherboard RAID is that they are at best equal to the in-kernel
software RAID option ("md").  My home workstation has three 300GB HDDs in a
RAID-5 config and it works really well.

Having said that, I would like to replace the setup with a single 750GB or
larger HDD.  Occasionally when I kick off a program to perform a lot of disk
IO, I see the RAID processes (md#_raid5) chew up a lot of CPU and X gets
sluggish.


On Mon, Mar 23, 2009 at 7:41 AM, Dave Thacker <dthacker9 at cox.net> wrote:
> > What's your preference on raid cards?


I have an old Compaq DL-380 with the Compaq RAID card that had been
bullet-proof for me.  I have four 18GB HDDs in RAID 5 and it's worked like a
champ for the past 3+ years. I've heard that the Adaptec server-oriented
line of cards are quite nice, but I don't have direct knowledge myself.

To the original poster, Jesse Regier:
Since your concern is long-term stability over raw performance, I'd push for
the software (md) RAID over an add-in card or the on-motherboard RAID
option.  If the entire motherboard gets fried, you should be able to pull
the HDDs out and mount them on another Linux system and recover your data.

Dan

-- 
"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" (Who can watch the watchmen?) -- from the
Satires of Juvenal
"I do not fear computers, I fear the lack of them." -- Isaac Asimov (Author)
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