Hardware vs software raid

[Peter M. Petrakis]

On 10/19/2011 07:35 PM, Diego Xirinachs wrote:
> Hi list,
> 
> We are about to implement open bravo on our organization and need a new
> server.
> 
> I decided to get a dell r310 but I dont know if I should get the hardware
> raid or just configure software raid on the server.

It really depends on what the load is and how much flexibility you want.
Parity calculations will always be faster using a dedicated controller,
so consider that when you deploy a software RAID 5/6. MD itself is very
reliable, I have no problem trusting it with my data, with the added bonus
that you have the opportunity to fix it yourself. Sometimes vendors can
be slow to address HW RAID firmware bugs. You don't have to worry so
much about the "RAID metadata problem" because you're going with an OEM.

> 
> I have been reading about this but still I am undecided.

If you have time do a little benchmarking, expect that the HW RAID will
win out in write intensive loads. The tradeoff then becomes one of management
and instrumentation. Openmanage + SNMP traps and you're basically done with
monitoring your RAID. With MD there will be a little more work involved and
perhaps require integration with something like nagios to get the same effect
as what openmanage offers. Then again, going with an opensource stack offers
all sorts of possibilities.

Peter

> What do you think?
> 
> Cheers
> 
>