RAID5 over Serial-ATA success stories?

RAID5 over Serial-ATA success stories?

[Daniel Brahneborg]

Hi,

I'd like to hear some success stories for RAID5 on Serial-ATA disks.
Which Serial-ATA card are you using?  Do you get decent performance?
Is it stable with DMA enabled?  Do you use the 2.4 or 2.6 kernel?

I know this much:

It doesn't work with Silicon Image.
It doesn't work with VIA (yet, anyway).
It might work with HighPoint.
It probably works with Promise.
I don't know if there's a driver for Adaptec.

In case I have to replace my Silicon Image card, what should I replace
it with?  I'm currently leaning towards Promise TX4 (or TX2 if the VIA
driver is completed).

Lots of thanks,

/Basic

Re: RAID5 over Serial-ATA success stories?

[Måns Rullgård]

Daniel Brahneborg <daniel.com@wtnord.net> writes:

> Hi,
>
> I'd like to hear some success stories for RAID5 on Serial-ATA disks.
> Which Serial-ATA card are you using?  Do you get decent performance?
> Is it stable with DMA enabled?  Do you use the 2.4 or 2.6 kernel?
>
> I know this much:
>
> It doesn't work with Silicon Image.

What doesn't work?  There are drivers, at least in 2.6.  Raid should
care about what sort of disks you use.

> It doesn't work with VIA (yet, anyway).
> It might work with HighPoint.

I've run RAID5 on a Highpoint RocketRAID 1540.  I used ATA disks with
SATA converters, though.  Works with both 2.4 and 2.6.

> It probably works with Promise.
> I don't know if there's a driver for Adaptec.

Which Adaptec card?  The 12xx cards are fakeraid, but are supported as
normal cards.  The 24xx cards are true hardware RAID cards.  Linux
drivers exist for these, too.

> In case I have to replace my Silicon Image card, what should I replace
> it with?  I'm currently leaning towards Promise TX4 (or TX2 if the VIA
> driver is completed).

I stay as far away as I can from Promise and VIA.  Anything is usually
better than those two.

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@kth.se

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Re: RAID5 over Serial-ATA success stories?

[Daniel Brahneborg]

Thanks for the feedback, it's very valuable to me.

On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 10:56:32PM +0100, Måns Rullgård wrote:
> Daniel Brahneborg <daniel.com@wtnord.net> writes:
> 
> > I'd like to hear some success stories for RAID5 on Serial-ATA disks.
> > Which Serial-ATA card are you using?  Do you get decent performance?
> > Is it stable with DMA enabled?  Do you use the 2.4 or 2.6 kernel?
> >
> > I know this much:
> >
> > It doesn't work with Silicon Image.
> 
> What doesn't work?  There are drivers, at least in 2.6.  Raid should
> care about what sort of disks you use.

When using it for normal disks e2fsck reports bad blocks all
over the disk. When used for RAID, I get corrupted data.  Not
much, maybe every second time for a file of 500MB.
This is with the IDE driver.  With the SCSI driver, my computer
completely freezes when I activate my second network card (as I
reported earlier, unfortunately still without a solution).
RAID might work with that driver, but unless the network card
problem is solved, that doesn't help me.

> > It doesn't work with VIA (yet, anyway).
> > It might work with HighPoint.
> 
> I've run RAID5 on a Highpoint RocketRAID 1540.  I used ATA disks with
> SATA converters, though.  Works with both 2.4 and 2.6.

Sounds good to hear.  It's the second cheapest card for me.

> > It probably works with Promise.
> > I don't know if there's a driver for Adaptec.
> 
> Which Adaptec card?  The 12xx cards are fakeraid, but are supported as
> normal cards.  The 24xx cards are true hardware RAID cards.  Linux
> drivers exist for these, too.

It's the 12xx cards that I'm looking at. I don't want hardware
RAID, since hardware RAID5 costs an infinite amount of money.

> > In case I have to replace my Silicon Image card, what should I replace
> > it with?  I'm currently leaning towards Promise TX4 (or TX2 if the VIA
> > driver is completed).
> 
> I stay as far away as I can from Promise and VIA.  Anything is usually
> better than those two.

Why the warning about Promise?  The reason I want the VIA
driver to work is that I've got two VIA connectors on the
motherboard, so I only need a 2 port SATA card.

/Basic

Re: RAID5 over Serial-ATA success stories?

[Måns Rullgård]

Daniel Brahneborg <basic@wtnord.net> writes:

> Thanks for the feedback, it's very valuable to me.
>
> On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 10:56:32PM +0100, Måns Rullgård wrote:
>> Daniel Brahneborg <daniel.com@wtnord.net> writes:
>> 
>> > I'd like to hear some success stories for RAID5 on Serial-ATA disks.
>> > Which Serial-ATA card are you using?  Do you get decent performance?
>> > Is it stable with DMA enabled?  Do you use the 2.4 or 2.6 kernel?
>> >
>> > I know this much:
>> >
>> > It doesn't work with Silicon Image.
>> 
>> What doesn't work?  There are drivers, at least in 2.6.  Raid should
>> care about what sort of disks you use.
>
> When using it for normal disks e2fsck reports bad blocks all
> over the disk. When used for RAID, I get corrupted data.  Not
> much, maybe every second time for a file of 500MB.
> This is with the IDE driver.  With the SCSI driver, my computer
> completely freezes when I activate my second network card (as I
> reported earlier, unfortunately still without a solution).
> RAID might work with that driver, but unless the network card
> problem is solved, that doesn't help me.

That sounds rather odd.  Have you reported this to the appropriate
places?

>> > It doesn't work with VIA (yet, anyway).
>> > It might work with HighPoint.
>> 
>> I've run RAID5 on a Highpoint RocketRAID 1540.  I used ATA disks with
>> SATA converters, though.  Works with both 2.4 and 2.6.
>
> Sounds good to hear.  It's the second cheapest card for me.

Beware that several people have reported some rather strange problems
with the Highpoint cards.  You should get a deal to take it back if it
doesn't work.

>> > It probably works with Promise.
>> > I don't know if there's a driver for Adaptec.
>> 
>> Which Adaptec card?  The 12xx cards are fakeraid, but are supported as
>> normal cards.  The 24xx cards are true hardware RAID cards.  Linux
>> drivers exist for these, too.
>
> It's the 12xx cards that I'm looking at. I don't want hardware
> RAID, since hardware RAID5 costs an infinite amount of money.

Not really.  The Adaptec 24xx cards cost about the same as the disks
you attach to them.  I ordered one from a while ago, but the shop went
bankrupt before I got it, or at least their web site disappeared and
they stopped answering mail or phone calls.

>> > In case I have to replace my Silicon Image card, what should I replace
>> > it with?  I'm currently leaning towards Promise TX4 (or TX2 if the VIA
>> > driver is completed).
>> 
>> I stay as far away as I can from Promise and VIA.  Anything is usually
>> better than those two.
>
> Why the warning about Promise?

I've had some bad experience with them, that's all.  They appear to be
incompatible with Alpha machines, but probably work better in PCs.

> The reason I want the VIA driver to work is that I've got two VIA
> connectors on the motherboard, so I only need a 2 port SATA card.

From what I've heard, VIA have improved a bit of late, but they used
to have a rather bad reputation.  I don't know anything about the
drivers, though.

-- 
Måns Rullgård
mru@kth.se

Re: RAID5 over Serial-ATA success stories?

[Daniel Brahneborg]

On Thu, Jan 08, 2004 at 09:06:46AM +0100, Måns Rullgård wrote:
> Daniel Brahneborg <basic@wtnord.net> writes:
> >> > It doesn't work with Silicon Image.
> >> 
> >> What doesn't work?  There are drivers, at least in 2.6.  Raid should
> >> care about what sort of disks you use.
> >
> > When using it for normal disks e2fsck reports bad blocks all
> > over the disk. When used for RAID, I get corrupted data.  Not
> > much, maybe every second time for a file of 500MB.
> > This is with the IDE driver.  With the SCSI driver, my computer
> > completely freezes when I activate my second network card (as I
> > reported earlier, unfortunately still without a solution).
> > RAID might work with that driver, but unless the network card
> > problem is solved, that doesn't help me.
> 
> That sounds rather odd.  Have you reported this to the appropriate
> places?

I emailed the persons in the MAINTAINERS file that seemed
relevant (Jeff Garzik, mainly).  I don't really know where
else to go, I'm afraid.

> >> > It doesn't work with VIA (yet, anyway).
> >> > It might work with HighPoint.
> >> 
> >> I've run RAID5 on a Highpoint RocketRAID 1540.  I used ATA disks with
> >> SATA converters, though.  Works with both 2.4 and 2.6.
> >
> > Sounds good to hear.  It's the second cheapest card for me.
> 
> Beware that several people have reported some rather strange problems
> with the Highpoint cards.  You should get a deal to take it back if it
> doesn't work.

I buy most things from komplett.se, they're nice with returns.

> >> > I don't know if there's a driver for Adaptec.
> >> 
> >> Which Adaptec card?  The 12xx cards are fakeraid, but are supported as
> >> normal cards.  The 24xx cards are true hardware RAID cards.  Linux
> >> drivers exist for these, too.
> >
> > It's the 12xx cards that I'm looking at. I don't want hardware
> > RAID, since hardware RAID5 costs an infinite amount of money.
> 
> Not really.  The Adaptec 24xx cards cost about the same as the disks
> you attach to them.  I ordered one from a while ago, but the shop went
> bankrupt before I got it, or at least their web site disappeared and
> they stopped answering mail or phone calls.

The Adaptec card I found would cost $250, which is about $200
more than I can spend on it.  If I can't get RAID5 to work I'd
rather buy more disks and do RAID10.

> >> > In case I have to replace my Silicon Image card, what should I replace
> >> > it with?  I'm currently leaning towards Promise TX4 (or TX2 if the VIA
> >> > driver is completed).
> >> 
> >> I stay as far away as I can from Promise and VIA.  Anything is usually
> >> better than those two.
> >
> > Why the warning about Promise?
> 
> I've had some bad experience with them, that's all.  They appear to be
> incompatible with Alpha machines, but probably work better in PCs.

I have a PC, so I'm hoping for the best.  I'll still make sure
that I can return it if it fails.

/Basic

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Re: RAID5 over Serial-ATA success stories?

[A.J.Dawson]

On Thu, 8 Jan 2004, Daniel Brahneborg wrote:

> > Which Adaptec card?  The 12xx cards are fakeraid, but are supported as
> > normal cards.  The 24xx cards are true hardware RAID cards.  Linux
> > drivers exist for these, too.

I've used a couple of the 2400A cards for a while under Linux (SuSE 8.2)
with mixed results - one works fine in RAID 5 mode (4x 120Gb disks),
though it is very slow (typical sustained transfer on about 10Mb/s).  The
other is a completely different story.  It keeps dropping disks from the
array that subsequently test out to be perfectly okay.  It also has a
nasty habit of not letting me rebuild the array even after putting a new
disk in.  I get a 'missing component' error that even Adaptec seem to know
nothing about (well, they've not bothered answering any of my e-mails
about it*).  This means that I have to rebuild the array again from
scratch (build + verify = a complete day) and then restore the data from
backup.  Out of four disks that have been dropped from the array recently,
three tested fine.  On more than one occasion it has also given me a
double disk failure within a couple of hours, not enough time to complete
the rebuild for the first drive before the second one 'fails'.  Again,
drives subsequently tested out fine.

The end result is that I got so fed up with it happening that I took the
card out and dropped it into a drawer.  I've replaced it with a couple of
software mirroed 250Gb drives which (so far) seem to be working fine and
give me a lot fewer headaches!

I'd not recommend this card to *anyone* any more.

* I'm pretty annoyed with Adaptec about this one - I've not even had a 'we
don't know the answer' e-mail from them.  I've tried eveything that I
could think of including replacing all of the cables, updating the
firmware on the drives (WD), hard resetting the 2400A, updating the
firmware and SMOR (twice) and replacing the cache memory.  I've
told Adaptec about everything that I have tried and they have not
even had the courtesy to reply to me.

Anyone at Adaptec care to comment?

Regards

Dr. Andy Dawson
A.J.Dawson@Bradford.ac.uk
http://www.mossie.org
http://www.museum-explorer.org.uk

 Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.