what raid controller?

[James Gray]

On 13/10/2008, at 5:10 PM, Emanoil Kotsev wrote:
> I've been admistrating few companies with more than 200 employes and  
> using software raid was the best choice.
> I'm using it also at home and this year I've been testing software  
> raid on external usb boxes.
> The great advantage of linxu software raid over hardware one is also  
> that mdadm utility do monitor your devices and if one fails you  
> first get e-mail and second can easlily replace it.
> Having a hardware raid you should look all the time at the leds if  
> they light green, yellow or red.
> The overhead by the raid layer is minimal and raid has been tested  
> extensively so it's kind of production software but I always tend to  
> say - use it at your own risk htough ;-)


Before anyone slams the "reply" button in a red mist of rage, please  
read the whole message :)

To make a blanket statement like "Having a hardware raid you should  
look all the time at the leds if they light green, yellow or red" is  
just plain nonsense.  You probably haven't played with real RAID  
technology in a while ;).  I've managed systems with Dell PERC, Compaq  
SmartArray, Adaptec and HP SAN technologies - under linux they *all*  
have the ability to provide the admins with a number of notification  
vectors from e-mail, "wall" right through to out-of-band SMS/Pager  
alerts etc.

I don't disagree with anything else you've said, and I assume that in  
the context of systems outside a corporate budget, the type of  
hardware RAID controllers available can be somewhat cobbled versions  
of their bigger siblings.  However, even the low-end Adaptec SATA RAID  
controllers (as in REAL RAID, not their fake-RAID cousins) can still  
notify admins about drive failures - via "ASM" :)  The Adapatec  
2405[1] is a nice little hardware RAID controller (PCIe x8) that has  
notification and hot-swap capabilities etc. and generally wont break  
the bank (approx USD$200).

Like most things in life, you get what you pay for....unless you're  
installing Linux, in which case you generally get a whole heap more :D

Peace,

James

[1] http://www.adaptec.com/en-US/products/Controllers/Hardware/sata/entry/SAS-2405/

PS - I have absolutely no affiliation with Adaptec other than  
successfully used them on a number of low-end servers and high-end  
work stations.  The 2405 even has open source drivers provided by  
Adaptec, hence my mention of it here; support those who support FOSS!
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