[ale] raid with linux

[Christopher Bergeron]

Ok... So are there any recommendations?  I agree that hardware raid is 
better than software (hence my lean towards a controller card).   I'm 
going to be mirroring the drives (no RAID 5 or anything [yet]).  The 
configuration is going to be as follows:

(I'm building a SAN/fileserver and I'd like the best "value" 
[price/perfomance ratio].)  I'm essentially aiming for the apex of the 
cost/benefit curve (isn't everyone?!).

2 x 180GB IDE drives
2 x 80GB IDE drives
1 x whatever minimal system drive

As such, I was thinking about using a 20GB or whatever drive for the 
OS/system and a promise controller (or other brand - recommendations are 
welcomed) for the IDE drives.  I have 0 (pronounced: zero) experience 
configuring RAID under linux and as such I'm looking for the most 
painless way to proceed.  This is a fraction of the project that I'm 
working on, and as such I don't want to spend too much time 
tweaking/installing this setup.

Since the mobo can only handle 4 ide (2 pairs); I know that I'll have to 
use a raid controller (I'm dismissing the raid motherboards that I've 
seen at Ginstar and others).  I'm _very_ familiar with redhat and 
Gentoo...  I'd like to make this a Gentoo box; but at this point the 
distro isn't really relevant.  The box sits on the inside of our 
network, and as such kernel versions and package versions can remain 
static (if it works; why upgrade it [security aside]).  I won't be 
upgrading the packages/kernel unless something comes up.  This machine 
is intended to be a headless server.  As long as it works and serves 
files, that's all I care about.

Your guys'es thoughts/recommendations?

Thanks again,
-CB



Zack Link wrote:

> Might be limited to one distro (red hat for instance), and a certain 
> kernel version for drivers for hardware raid.  I have an onboard RAID 
> controller on a PC, and I am stuck with RH AND a certain kernel 
> version.  No upgrading the kernel etc.  Maybe there is a way around 
> it, but in the short time I worked on it, that was the only way I 
> could get it to work.  This is pretty much because of closed source 
> binary drivers I think.
>
> Anyway, something to be aware of when shopping for a hardware RAID 
> controller.  Make sure there are available open source drivers.
>
> But, I always prefer hardware RAID to software RAID.
>
> ZL
>
>
>
> At 04:13 PM 11/13/2002 -0500, you wrote:
>
>> I need to setup a raid fileserver.  Here's what I'm wondering...  
>> Should I get one of those Promise Raid controllers (IDE) or should I 
>> do the raid with linux?  The machine will run linux and samba.  I'd 
>> like to use the hardware solution, but I'm wondering if there are any 
>> caveats that I should know about.  Anyone have any suggestions or 
>> insights?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> -CB
>>
>>
>>
>> ---
>> This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
>> See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems 
>> should be sent to listmaster at ale dot org.
>>
>
>
>




---
This message has been sent through the ALE general discussion list.
See http://www.ale.org/mailing-lists.shtml for more info. Problems should be 
sent to listmaster at ale dot org.