Which controller is recommended for a hardware-raid

Which controller is recommended for a hardware-raid

[linuxraid]

Hello all,
After painful experiences with some raid-controllers, namely
   - Adaptec AIC-7902 in the HostRAID (RAID 1) configuration
     (After 9 hours trying, searching compiling, I found this
      http://mbserver.adaptec.com/view.php?bn=linux_scsi&key=1064363305&pattern=AIC-7902+hostraid
      It's a shame!)
   - FastTrak 100 (RAID 1 configuration)
     (I was forced to use either SuSE or Red Hat, download a driver, and
taint the kernel)
So I don't want to make the same mistakes (first buy, then try) again.

I expect of linux-raid-controller that,
 - the driver is opensource, means that I can use it in every linux kernel
   (also debian, gentoo, ...) without tainting the kernel
   (better would be that the driver is already part of the kernel)
 - I can receive status-information about the RAID (e.g. via /proc/.... or
   a daemon); I'll make script which sends an email to the sysadmin if
   a disk crashed
 - the raid still works, even if a disk crashed (this should be self-evident)
   without writing megabytes in /var/log/messages

I would really be appreciate any information to the following:
IDE-hardware-RAID1:
 - Which controller do you recommend (is it still available)?
 - Which driver should I use? (how to install it)
 - How and where can I find status information?
 - what about performance?
IDE-hardware-RAID5:
 - Which controller do you recommend (is it still available)?
 - Which driver should I use? (how to install it)
 - How and where can I find status information?
 - what about performance?
SCSI-hardware-RAID1:
 - Which controller do you recommend (is it still available)?
 - Which driver should I use? (how to install it)
 - How and where can I find status information?
 - what about performance?
SCSI-hardware-RAID5:
 - Which controller do you recommend (is it still available)?
 - Which driver should I use? (how to install it)
 - How and where can I find status information?
 - what about performance?

What about the following hardware:
 (found in: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/raid.html)
 - Mylex RAID controllers
 (found in: http://tldp.org/HOWTO/Hardware-HOWTO/ideraid.html)
 - 3ware Escalade IDE RAID controllers
 - Promise SuperTRAK SX6000
 - Adaptec ATA RAID 2400A
 - ARCO Inc. DupliDisk IDE disk mirroring controller
 - Tekram D690CD IDE PCI Cache Controller

Thanks a lot for your answers
valli

Re: Which controller is recommended for a hardware-raid

[Jeff Garzik]

On Fri, Nov 28, 2003 at 07:16:34PM +0100, linuxraid@valli.org wrote:
> Hello all,
> After painful experiences with some raid-controllers, namely
>    - Adaptec AIC-7902 in the HostRAID (RAID 1) configuration
>      (After 9 hours trying, searching compiling, I found this
>       http://mbserver.adaptec.com/view.php?bn=linux_scsi&key=1064363305&pattern=AIC-7902+hostraid
>       It's a shame!)
>    - FastTrak 100 (RAID 1 configuration)
>      (I was forced to use either SuSE or Red Hat, download a driver, and
> taint the kernel)
> So I don't want to make the same mistakes (first buy, then try) again.

There is an open source driver for the FastTrak now...
(assuming it's SATA not PATA)

	Jeff

Re: Which controller is recommended for a hardware-raid

[Holger Kiehl]

On Fri, 28 Nov 2003, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> There is an open source driver for the FastTrak now...
> (assuming it's SATA not PATA)
> 
Where can I find this driver? I have an onboard Promise 378 setup as
raid 1 with two SATA disks and with kernel 2.6.0-test9 it only sees the
two individual drives, not the raid 1 mirror.

Holger

Re: Which controller is recommended for a hardware-raid

[Jeff Garzik]

Holger Kiehl wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Nov 2003, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> 
> 
>>There is an open source driver for the FastTrak now...
>>(assuming it's SATA not PATA)
>>
> 
> Where can I find this driver? I have an onboard Promise 378 setup as
> raid 1 with two SATA disks and with kernel 2.6.0-test9 it only sees the
> two individual drives, not the raid 1 mirror.


Right.  My driver presents only the individual drives.

In 2.4.x, you need the additional "pdcraid" driver to use Promise RAID 
0/1.  In 2.6.x, you must use md RAID to achieve RAID 0/1/5.

	Jeff

Re: Which controller is recommended for a hardware-raid

[Holger Kiehl]

On Tue, 2 Dec 2003, Jeff Garzik wrote:

> Holger Kiehl wrote:
> > On Fri, 28 Nov 2003, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > 
> > 
> >>There is an open source driver for the FastTrak now...
> >>(assuming it's SATA not PATA)
> >>
> > 
> > Where can I find this driver? I have an onboard Promise 378 setup as
> > raid 1 with two SATA disks and with kernel 2.6.0-test9 it only sees the
> > two individual drives, not the raid 1 mirror.
> 
> 
> Right.  My driver presents only the individual drives.
> 
> In 2.4.x, you need the additional "pdcraid" driver to use Promise RAID 
> 0/1.
>
You mean the combination of your libata and pdcraid? Because I tried
pdcraid only with no success.

>  In 2.6.x, you must use md RAID to achieve RAID 0/1/5.
> 
I would like to access the promise raid from both the linux and windows
world. Not that you get me wrong I love md and use it a lot and think
this is the best possible raid solution. Maybe Neil volunteers to port
md to windows ;)

Holger