What hardware for RAID5? (PCIe controller or fast onboard)

What hardware for RAID5? (PCIe controller or fast onboard)

[Dexter Filmore]

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I want to upgrade server hardware here, currently I have 5 Samsungs (sATA II) 
sitting on the onboard controller of an Asus K8N-E Socket754 board.
I guess the controller chips are both connected via PCI hence performance 
isn't really hot.

Basically I need either a board with at least 6x sATA-II attached via PCIe or 
a "dumb" PCIe 4x or 8x controller card.

Any recommendations?

Dex

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Re: What hardware for RAID5? (PCIe controller or fast onboard)

[Goswin von Brederlow]

Dexter Filmore <Dexter.Filmore@gmx.de> writes:

> I want to upgrade server hardware here, currently I have 5 Samsungs (sATA II) 
> sitting on the onboard controller of an Asus K8N-E Socket754 board.
> I guess the controller chips are both connected via PCI hence performance 
> isn't really hot.
>
> Basically I need either a board with at least 6x sATA-II attached via PCIe or 
> a "dumb" PCIe 4x or 8x controller card.
>
> Any recommendations?
>
> Dex

Anything that is not pci. PCIe or PCI-X will both be way
faster. Server boards with 6x SATA-II onboard are hard to miss. And
any cheap PCIe/PCI-X controler will probably do.

One important thing to think about is hotplug support. Do you need it
or not?

Look for a board and then check out http://linux-ata.org/ for support.

MfG
        Goswin

Re: What hardware for RAID5? (PCIe controller or fast onboard)

[Eyal Lebedinsky]

A word of caution. 6 on-board SATA is not always enough. It is often the case
that using all will hit internal bandwidth limits. I find it common for 4 disks
to be handled OK but 5 are too much.

A simple test of 5 concurrent dd's will tell you if all disks are going full speed.
Some time one combination of 5 out of 6 (or 8) on-board sockets will perform better
than other and it is worth checking.

Eyal

Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
> Dexter Filmore <Dexter.Filmore@gmx.de> writes:
> 
>> I want to upgrade server hardware here, currently I have 5 Samsungs (sATA II) 
>> sitting on the onboard controller of an Asus K8N-E Socket754 board.
>> I guess the controller chips are both connected via PCI hence performance 
>> isn't really hot.
>>
>> Basically I need either a board with at least 6x sATA-II attached via PCIe or 
>> a "dumb" PCIe 4x or 8x controller card.
>>
>> Any recommendations?
>>
>> Dex
> 
> Anything that is not pci. PCIe or PCI-X will both be way
> faster. Server boards with 6x SATA-II onboard are hard to miss. And
> any cheap PCIe/PCI-X controler will probably do.
> 
> One important thing to think about is hotplug support. Do you need it
> or not?
> 
> Look for a board and then check out http://linux-ata.org/ for support.
> 
> MfG
>         Goswin

-- 
Eyal Lebedinsky	(eyal@eyal.emu.id.au)

Re: What hardware for RAID5? (PCIe controller or fast onboard)

[Ryan Wagoner]

I am using an LSI 1068 SAS PCIe controller. I have 7 drives connected
and am getting excellent performance. Depending on the layout of the
case you can pickup a Supermicro version for less than $100. The issue
is the components are mounted on the reverse side for the Supermicro
UIO slot, so it takes up two bracket slots on a normal PCIe slot.

Ryan

On Wed, Mar 18, 2009 at 5:10 PM, Eyal Lebedinsky <eyal@eyal.emu.id.au> wrote:
> A word of caution. 6 on-board SATA is not always enough. It is often the
> case
> that using all will hit internal bandwidth limits. I find it common for 4
> disks
> to be handled OK but 5 are too much.
>
> A simple test of 5 concurrent dd's will tell you if all disks are going full
> speed.
> Some time one combination of 5 out of 6 (or 8) on-board sockets will perform
> better
> than other and it is worth checking.
>
> Eyal
>
> Goswin von Brederlow wrote:
>>
>> Dexter Filmore <Dexter.Filmore@gmx.de> writes:
>>
>>> I want to upgrade server hardware here, currently I have 5 Samsungs (sATA
>>> II) sitting on the onboard controller of an Asus K8N-E Socket754 board.
>>> I guess the controller chips are both connected via PCI hence performance
>>> isn't really hot.
>>>
>>> Basically I need either a board with at least 6x sATA-II attached via
>>> PCIe or a "dumb" PCIe 4x or 8x controller card.
>>>
>>> Any recommendations?
>>>
>>> Dex
>>
>> Anything that is not pci. PCIe or PCI-X will both be way
>> faster. Server boards with 6x SATA-II onboard are hard to miss. And
>> any cheap PCIe/PCI-X controler will probably do.
>>
>> One important thing to think about is hotplug support. Do you need it
>> or not?
>>
>> Look for a board and then check out http://linux-ata.org/ for support.
>>
>> MfG
>>        Goswin
>
> --
> Eyal Lebedinsky (eyal@eyal.emu.id.au)
> --
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