working sata raid - which controller?

working sata raid - which controller?

[Paul]

Hi Guys,

We are purchasing a new test server and I need to know which controllers are
sata raid based and are hardware raid and not software raid. We currently
use promise fast trak tx4's and have found in linux there is no mirroring
support and it does not actively mirror data between the two disks.

00:09.0 RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc.: Unknown device 3319
(rev 02)
        Subsystem: Promise Technology, Inc.: Unknown device 3319
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr-
Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap+ 66Mhz+ UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort-
<TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-

There is a function in win32 land you can run to "synch" the drives but we
can't find an equivalent in linux and would prefer hardware. Cost is not a
problem.

Thanks

Re: working sata raid - which controller?

[Luca Berra]

On Thu, Aug 12, 2004 at 03:55:19PM +1000, Paul wrote:
>
>Hi Guys,
>
>We are purchasing a new test server and I need to know which controllers are
>sata raid based and are hardware raid and not software raid. We currently
>use promise fast trak tx4's and have found in linux there is no mirroring
>support and it does not actively mirror data between the two disks.
...
>There is a function in win32 land you can run to "synch" the drives but we
>can't find an equivalent in linux and would prefer hardware. Cost is not a
>problem.
>
'tis not hardware, that is why those controller are also called
fakeraid. the raid is implemented in bios+windows driver.
there is a project to support those with linux 2.6 using device mapper,
it is called dmraid and is still in it's early stage, but it is evolving
well.

if cost is not a problem, go to scsi, and chose a controller with a
cache and a battery.
else probably the better supported sata raid controller are 3wares, even
if ppl are griping over suboptimal performance, also i believe adaptec
works, but i never had the chance to try one.

regards,
L.

-- 
Luca Berra -- bluca@comedia.it
        Communication Media & Services S.r.l.
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