adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Ross Macintyre]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain, Size: 1183 bytes --]

Could someone possibly help?

I have upgraded a machine from RedHat 8.0 to FC2 and the
adaptec-browser1 and adaptec-smbe software that I installed is not working
properly. It looks ok at first glance but if I pull a disk out I only get
informed of the 'informational' type messages.
(Also the browser interface to the RAID doesn't notice that the disk has
been pulled)

These are the RPMs that I installed from adaptec:
  adaptec-browser-1.2b-2
  adaptec-smbe-1.01.005-0

and I am running this kernel: 2.6.8-1.521smp

Note the mail part works ok and I do get informational messages when I use
the browser interface and I tell it to rescan, (the array is rebuilt ok),
but after the disk is pulled, from the browser interface it still shows
the disk as being there, and it is only when I tell it to rescan that it
starts sending out the informational messages and rebuilds.
The messages are logged to /var/log/messages but it seems that anotifyd is
not picking them up.

Maybe I just need to upgrade the firmware and put on the latest RPMs?
I think I am at firmware revision 7244.

I have attached the anotify.conf file.

Thanks in advance,
Ross

-- 
Ross Macintyre (raz@macs.hw.ac.uk)

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #2: anotify.conf --]
[-- Type: text/xml; name="anotify.conf", Size: 1058 bytes --]

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <tdoc xml:lang="en-US">
        <conf id="notification">
            <conf id="from">
                Adaptec SMBE Event Notifier
            </conf>
            <conf id="subject">
                Adaptec Hardware Event
            </conf>
            <conf id="users">
                <conf id="help@macs.hw.ac.uk">
                    <conf id="severity-level">
                        1 2 3
                    </conf>
                    <conf id="locale">
                        en-GB
                    </conf>
                    <conf id="notification-type">
                        email
                    </conf>
                </conf>
            </conf>
            <conf id="smtp">
                <conf id="server-name">
                    localhost
                </conf>
                <conf id="port-number">
                    25
                </conf>
            </conf>
            <conf id="sender">
                root@macs.hw.ac.uk
            </conf>
        </conf>
    </tdoc>

RE: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Salyzyn, Mark]

The applications require the Adaptec Branch of the driver in order to
function (mainly because the kernel.org branch drops the
/proc/scsi/aacraid entry). I have submitted a patch to Mark Haverkamp
for consideration where we add the information back to the /sys
filesystem, and the /proc filesystem (with CONFIG_PROC_FS defined) that
will help re-enable the applications.

There is also a Public GPL daemon, aeventd, that provides event services
that you may consider.

I will provide the sources for both under separate cover.

Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn

-----Original Message-----
From: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org
[mailto:linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Ross Macintyre
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 6:20 AM
To: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org
Subject: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

Could someone possibly help?

I have upgraded a machine from RedHat 8.0 to FC2 and the
adaptec-browser1 and adaptec-smbe software that I installed is not
working
properly. It looks ok at first glance but if I pull a disk out I only
get
informed of the 'informational' type messages.
(Also the browser interface to the RAID doesn't notice that the disk has
been pulled)

These are the RPMs that I installed from adaptec:
  adaptec-browser-1.2b-2
  adaptec-smbe-1.01.005-0

and I am running this kernel: 2.6.8-1.521smp

Note the mail part works ok and I do get informational messages when I
use
the browser interface and I tell it to rescan, (the array is rebuilt
ok),
but after the disk is pulled, from the browser interface it still shows
the disk as being there, and it is only when I tell it to rescan that it
starts sending out the informational messages and rebuilds.
The messages are logged to /var/log/messages but it seems that anotifyd
is
not picking them up.

Maybe I just need to upgrade the firmware and put on the latest RPMs?
I think I am at firmware revision 7244.

I have attached the anotify.conf file.

Thanks in advance,
Ross

-- 
Ross Macintyre (raz@macs.hw.ac.uk)

RE: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Mark Haverkamp]

On Wed, 2005-03-16 at 08:02 -0500, Salyzyn, Mark wrote:
> The applications require the Adaptec Branch of the driver in order to
> function (mainly because the kernel.org branch drops the
> /proc/scsi/aacraid entry). I have submitted a patch to Mark Haverkamp
> for consideration where we add the information back to the /sys
> filesystem, and the /proc filesystem (with CONFIG_PROC_FS defined) that
> will help re-enable the applications.

The proc info code was removed almost two years ago.  I assume that it
was removed because of the move away from using /proc and towards
using /sys.  Christoph, is that the reason for its removal?

Mark.

> 
> There is also a Public GPL daemon, aeventd, that provides event services
> that you may consider.
> 
> I will provide the sources for both under separate cover.
> 
> Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org
> [mailto:linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Ross Macintyre
> Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 6:20 AM
> To: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2
> 
> Could someone possibly help?
> 
> I have upgraded a machine from RedHat 8.0 to FC2 and the
> adaptec-browser1 and adaptec-smbe software that I installed is not
> working
> properly. It looks ok at first glance but if I pull a disk out I only
> get
> informed of the 'informational' type messages.
> (Also the browser interface to the RAID doesn't notice that the disk has
> been pulled)
> 
> These are the RPMs that I installed from adaptec:
>   adaptec-browser-1.2b-2
>   adaptec-smbe-1.01.005-0
> 
> and I am running this kernel: 2.6.8-1.521smp
> 
> Note the mail part works ok and I do get informational messages when I
> use
> the browser interface and I tell it to rescan, (the array is rebuilt
> ok),
> but after the disk is pulled, from the browser interface it still shows
> the disk as being there, and it is only when I tell it to rescan that it
> starts sending out the informational messages and rebuilds.
> The messages are logged to /var/log/messages but it seems that anotifyd
> is
> not picking them up.
> 
> Maybe I just need to upgrade the firmware and put on the latest RPMs?
> I think I am at firmware revision 7244.
> 
> I have attached the anotify.conf file.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Ross
> 
-- 
Mark Haverkamp <markh@osdl.org>

RE: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Salyzyn, Mark]

MarkH, I had submitted the patch in such a manner that the /proc section
is small, easily cut out, utilizes shared code with the /sys interface
and is ifdef'd with CONFIG_PROC_FS. Should be a simple adjustment based
on the scsi list consensus. Keeping the /proc code in the Adaptec branch
for legacy management tool support and cut out completely in the
kernel.org branch is fine by me.

We are pressuring our management application folks to switch to /sys as
well, has not happened yet. In part because changes have to work for all
tested releases and operating systems, our testing department only test
distributions in the requirement documents, fixes are only approved if
they affect current testing, certification testing requires a driver
that can be fixed and not errata'd and thus typically can not be in-box,
CONFIG_PROC_FS being on in all distributions and the need to keep the
/proc interface alive to permit the current and legacy applications in
test the ability to continue to function.

This momentum is at cross purposes for any deprecation activities in the
kernel.

Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn

-----Original Message-----
From: Mark Haverkamp [mailto:markh@osdl.org] 
Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 4:53 PM
To: Salyzyn, Mark; Christoph Hellwig
Cc: Ross Macintyre; linux-scsi
Subject: RE: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

On Wed, 2005-03-16 at 08:02 -0500, Salyzyn, Mark wrote:
> The applications require the Adaptec Branch of the driver in order to
> function (mainly because the kernel.org branch drops the
> /proc/scsi/aacraid entry). I have submitted a patch to Mark Haverkamp
> for consideration where we add the information back to the /sys
> filesystem, and the /proc filesystem (with CONFIG_PROC_FS defined)
that
> will help re-enable the applications.

The proc info code was removed almost two years ago.  I assume that it
was removed because of the move away from using /proc and towards
using /sys.  Christoph, is that the reason for its removal?

Mark.

> 
> There is also a Public GPL daemon, aeventd, that provides event
services
> that you may consider.
> 
> I will provide the sources for both under separate cover.
> 
> Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org
> [mailto:linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Ross Macintyre
> Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 6:20 AM
> To: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org
> Subject: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2
> 
> Could someone possibly help?
> 
> I have upgraded a machine from RedHat 8.0 to FC2 and the
> adaptec-browser1 and adaptec-smbe software that I installed is not
> working
> properly. It looks ok at first glance but if I pull a disk out I only
> get
> informed of the 'informational' type messages.
> (Also the browser interface to the RAID doesn't notice that the disk
has
> been pulled)
> 
> These are the RPMs that I installed from adaptec:
>   adaptec-browser-1.2b-2
>   adaptec-smbe-1.01.005-0
> 
> and I am running this kernel: 2.6.8-1.521smp
> 
> Note the mail part works ok and I do get informational messages when I
> use
> the browser interface and I tell it to rescan, (the array is rebuilt
> ok),
> but after the disk is pulled, from the browser interface it still
shows
> the disk as being there, and it is only when I tell it to rescan that
it
> starts sending out the informational messages and rebuilds.
> The messages are logged to /var/log/messages but it seems that
anotifyd
> is
> not picking them up.
> 
> Maybe I just need to upgrade the firmware and put on the latest RPMs?
> I think I am at firmware revision 7244.
> 
> I have attached the anotify.conf file.
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> Ross
> 
-- 
Mark Haverkamp <markh@osdl.org>

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Wed, Mar 16, 2005 at 01:52:51PM -0800, Mark Haverkamp wrote:
> On Wed, 2005-03-16 at 08:02 -0500, Salyzyn, Mark wrote:
> > The applications require the Adaptec Branch of the driver in order to
> > function (mainly because the kernel.org branch drops the
> > /proc/scsi/aacraid entry). I have submitted a patch to Mark Haverkamp
> > for consideration where we add the information back to the /sys
> > filesystem, and the /proc filesystem (with CONFIG_PROC_FS defined) that
> > will help re-enable the applications.
> 
> The proc info code was removed almost two years ago.  I assume that it
> was removed because of the move away from using /proc and towards
> using /sys.  Christoph, is that the reason for its removal?

Yes.  Note that aacraid never had a non-trivial proc_info handler in mainline.

> 
> 
> Mark.
> 
> > 
> > There is also a Public GPL daemon, aeventd, that provides event services
> > that you may consider.
> > 
> > I will provide the sources for both under separate cover.
> > 
> > Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn
> > 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org
> > [mailto:linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org] On Behalf Of Ross Macintyre
> > Sent: Wednesday, March 16, 2005 6:20 AM
> > To: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org
> > Subject: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2
> > 
> > Could someone possibly help?
> > 
> > I have upgraded a machine from RedHat 8.0 to FC2 and the
> > adaptec-browser1 and adaptec-smbe software that I installed is not
> > working
> > properly. It looks ok at first glance but if I pull a disk out I only
> > get
> > informed of the 'informational' type messages.
> > (Also the browser interface to the RAID doesn't notice that the disk has
> > been pulled)
> > 
> > These are the RPMs that I installed from adaptec:
> >   adaptec-browser-1.2b-2
> >   adaptec-smbe-1.01.005-0
> > 
> > and I am running this kernel: 2.6.8-1.521smp
> > 
> > Note the mail part works ok and I do get informational messages when I
> > use
> > the browser interface and I tell it to rescan, (the array is rebuilt
> > ok),
> > but after the disk is pulled, from the browser interface it still shows
> > the disk as being there, and it is only when I tell it to rescan that it
> > starts sending out the informational messages and rebuilds.
> > The messages are logged to /var/log/messages but it seems that anotifyd
> > is
> > not picking them up.
> > 
> > Maybe I just need to upgrade the firmware and put on the latest RPMs?
> > I think I am at firmware revision 7244.
> > 
> > I have attached the anotify.conf file.
> > 
> > Thanks in advance,
> > Ross
> > 
> -- 
> Mark Haverkamp <markh@osdl.org>
> 
---end quoted text---

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Thu, Mar 17, 2005 at 08:41:18AM -0500, Salyzyn, Mark wrote:
> We are pressuring our management application folks to switch to /sys as
> well, has not happened yet. In part because changes have to work for all
> tested releases and operating systems, our testing department only test
> distributions in the requirement documents, fixes are only approved if
> they affect current testing, certification testing requires a driver
> that can be fixed and not errata'd and thus typically can not be in-box,
> CONFIG_PROC_FS being on in all distributions and the need to keep the
> /proc interface alive to permit the current and legacy applications in
> test the ability to continue to function.

We're not going to add new procfs handler for scsi HBA drivers.

Unfortunately this problems shows once more that Adaptec managment doesn't
care the slightest bit for Linux and has the worst support of all RAID /
Storage vendors.  I can only advise OEMs and customers to stay far away
from Adaptec equipment if they want to use Linux.

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Ross Macintyre]

Christoph Hellwig said:
> On Thu, Mar 17, 2005 at 08:41:18AM -0500, Salyzyn, Mark wrote:
>> We are pressuring our management application folks to switch to /sys as
>> well, has not happened yet. In part because changes have to work for all
>> tested releases and operating systems, our testing department only test
>> distributions in the requirement documents, fixes are only approved if
>> they affect current testing, certification testing requires a driver
>> that can be fixed and not errata'd and thus typically can not be in-box,
>> CONFIG_PROC_FS being on in all distributions and the need to keep the
>> /proc interface alive to permit the current and legacy applications in
>> test the ability to continue to function.
>
> We're not going to add new procfs handler for scsi HBA drivers.
>
> Unfortunately this problems shows once more that Adaptec managment doesn't
> care the slightest bit for Linux and has the worst support of all RAID /
> Storage vendors.  I can only advise OEMs and customers to stay far away
> from Adaptec equipment if they want to use Linux.

Since you advise us to stay away from Adaptec, and I assume you are part
of the team that manages the Fedora system, can you advise users what RAID
/ Storage vendors to use? ie what quality vendors support Linux?
Thanks,

Ross

>


-- 
Ross Macintyre (raz@macs.hw.ac.uk)

RE: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Salyzyn, Mark]

Christoph Hellwig said:
> We're not going to add new procfs handler for scsi HBA drivers.

And that was the answer to the question, thanks for answering it. Isn't
it nice to ask for guidance and get such direct answers?

Christoph Hellwig then goes on a tirade:
> Unfortunately this problems shows once more that Adaptec managment
doesn't
> care the slightest bit for Linux and has the worst support of all RAID
/
> Storage vendors.  I can only advise OEMs and customers to stay far
away
> from Adaptec equipment if they want to use Linux.

No, this shows that you have no interest in supporting legacy
applications and do not care for the struggling customers of Linux. I
assure you, we care for Linux, the Customers of Linux and the OEMs that
add Linux to their product support; and when one spreads this much
*love* around, one must always compromise.

Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 04:32:04PM -0000, Ross Macintyre wrote:
> Since you advise us to stay away from Adaptec, and I assume you are part
> of the team that manages the Fedora system,

I'm not associated with Fedora at all.

> can you advise users what RAID
> / Storage vendors to use? ie what quality vendors support Linux?

LSI and 3ware for example do provide frequent driver updates, working
managment tools and cooperate with the linux community very well.

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Christoph Hellwig]

On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 12:43:50PM -0500, Salyzyn, Mark wrote:
> No, this shows that you have no interest in supporting legacy
> applications

legacy of Adaptec's non linux-supporting past.

note that if adaptec simply opensourced their managment tools we wouldn't
have this problem at all.  I wonder why Adaptec did that for the old
i2o-based controllers but not aacraid.  Maybe it still was a DPT managment
decision?

RE: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Salyzyn, Mark]

Now you've gone and done it Christoph! ;-}

Christoph Hellwig writes:
> legacy of Adaptec's non linux-supporting past.

Cry with me for a moment... We all know that certification is the real
issue here, most Penguins scoff at this requirement, but customers
expect it none-the-less and pull us through the wringer to provide such
certifications. Christoph, you are on record as not giving a flying fig
for Channel (over the counter) or OEM (complete hardened systems)
customers. There is not even a disagreement between us, as I do in fact
understand your stance; it is merely a matter of which world's we each
must live in.

Adaptec built a complex RAID management tool with a team of hundreds of
engineers and provided a dedicated build system that survives today many
years later still producing Linux products several times a day. The
products are release stabilized, passing through a costly certification
mechanism to OEM clients. Adaptec spilled blood to do this task in the
name of supporting Linux and our customers.

The legacy tools shipped with cards in a 2.4 kernel timeframe based on
Gold Distributions, the users of these legacy cards wish to utilize the
familiar management tools that were shipped with these cards. They can't
because /proc/scsi/aacraid is deprecated. Seems like a simple fix to new
releases of the management tools, but certification testing still has to
occur before release, or our customers will balk. The decision made by
one of our customers recently was to continue to use the legacy
management tools and the Adaptec branch of the Linux driver that
supports /proc/scsi/aacraid to minimize the number of changes and manage
the risks to certification tests.

New tools are developed that continue to support these old cards, these
tools pass through additional Linux Certification testing and release
occurs once the product passes all tests, with a standard of reliability
that our customers expect. But their release is based only on what can
be certified to the satisfaction of our customers, static 'Gold' popular
Distributions laid out on CD which have only recently started to show
2.6 based kernels. Today, our management tools function in said
environments, but they are not to be released until we comply with
existing testing standards.

Thus the explanation for the delay...

And the net result is that every kernel.org customer with less
certification demands that wants our legacy management tools to function
has to come to me to get the latest Adaptec Branch of the aacraid driver
which I gladly and with good temper supply without hesitation, but
leaving me buried trying to keep up. A problem that would go away in a
relative instant if CONFIG_SCSI_PROC_FS was respected for what it was, a
tie-in to legacy support. I, or rather Adaptec that pays my salary, pays
the price for some idealism and Linux support suffers because I have not
got one moment of time left to provide patches for review by MarkH.

I am a Martyr, a bridge to the past, a historian, Christoph! I should be
relished as a hero for all! :-). But I know better than to expect
that...

> note that if adaptec simply opensourced their managment tools we
wouldn't
> have this problem at all. I wonder why Adaptec did that for the old
> i2o-based controllers but not aacraid.  

Oh yes, that, worked hard on the powers-that-be to permit this. Could
not release a substantial majority of it because it would violate
licensed libraries (Zinc, being one of them, I am sorry to admit). So we
release the engine and the raidutil. No logger, no remote communication
engine, no GUI and no browser engine either. It was the best we could
do.

Once released, and under a BSD license, the open source community failed
to contribute one change to the sources. All it did was permit the tools
to be packaged, archived and to continue in-perpetuity when
compatibility libraries failed to work on newer installations.

Why do we not release aaccli & FSAAPI? Gohd knows I've tried. DPT
released products using a Channel paradigm, DKI released products using
an OEM paradigm. It was far easier to release a channel hardened product
with wide OS and platform coverage. But alas, aaccli is no longer
relevant to the new products, and releasing it will only serve to hurt
Adaptec once the customers start utilizing these new products. We know
this through experiences with our customers that have signed NDAs and
are promised engineering support. Heaven forbid us having an uncertified
release mucking around with the reliability...

Adaptec will continue to commit to building and certifying tools that
our customers demand. For those that wish to write their own management
tools, and in an effort to minimize Adaptec's precious engineering
support requirements, Adaptec has instead decided to release a
documented OpenBuild SDK with a consistent management interface for all
our products. The same SDK that our OEM clients get and the same SDK we
use for our own management tools.

It's a baby step in the right direction to satisfy as many as possible.
Look at the definition of politics in the dictionary; it is not an easy
task to please everyone.

> Maybe it still was a DPT management decision?

No, this was almost purely an Adaptec management decision. I can only
find one legacy DPT management signatory to this proposal, and he was
hired on only a matter of months before the DPT purchase and was several
levels down from the top.

Mere coders could work as hard as they want to prod such open releases
along, but remain as JAFO to the likes of CEOs and Directors.

Sincerely -- Mark Salyzyn

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Markus Lidel]

Hello,

Salyzyn, Mark wrote:
 > [...]
>>note that if adaptec simply opensourced their managment tools we wouldn't
>>have this problem at all. I wonder why Adaptec did that for the old
>>i2o-based controllers but not aacraid.  
> Oh yes, that, worked hard on the powers-that-be to permit this. Could
> not release a substantial majority of it because it would violate
> licensed libraries (Zinc, being one of them, I am sorry to admit). So we
> release the engine and the raidutil. No logger, no remote communication
> engine, no GUI and no browser engine either. It was the best we could
> do.
> Once released, and under a BSD license, the open source community failed
> to contribute one change to the sources. All it did was permit the tools
> to be packaged, archived and to continue in-perpetuity when
> compatibility libraries failed to work on newer installations.

Hmmm, IMHO that's not 100% correct... It's true that currently there is 
no new version. I'm working on the 64-bit version and a rewrite of the 
kernel-interface to get rid of the ioctl's... Because i'm still working 
on the interface, i haven't released both the kernel as well as the 
raidutils yet. But you could look into subversion to see that there *is* 
developement. Also IMHO it is be better to provide documentation for how 
to program the controller instead of releasing the source of the 
management tool itself.

 > [...]



Best regards,


Markus Lidel
------------------------------------------
Markus Lidel (Senior IT Consultant)

Shadow Connect GmbH
Carl-Reisch-Weg 12
D-86381 Krumbach
Germany

Phone:  +49 82 82/99 51-0
Fax:    +49 82 82/99 51-11

E-Mail: Markus.Lidel@shadowconnect.com
URL:    http://www.shadowconnect.com

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Markus Lidel]

Hello,

Christoph Hellwig wrote:
> [...]
>>can you advise users what RAID
>>/ Storage vendors to use? ie what quality vendors support Linux?
> LSI and 3ware for example do provide frequent driver updates, working
> managment tools and cooperate with the linux community very well.

Hmmm, can't say something about 3ware, but i've tried to get a technical 
documentation from LSI on how to program their I2O controller series to 
create or remove an RAID array, and the answer i became back (after a lot 
of e-mails) was:

 > Unfortunately that is not supported.

AFAIK the managament tool from LSI isn't open source, and there is no 
documentation... In oposite to that i've got the spec and the tool from 
Adaptec...



Best regards,


Markus Lidel
------------------------------------------
Markus Lidel (Senior IT Consultant)

Shadow Connect GmbH
Carl-Reisch-Weg 12
D-86381 Krumbach
Germany

Phone:  +49 82 82/99 51-0
Fax:    +49 82 82/99 51-11

E-Mail: Markus.Lidel@shadowconnect.com
URL:    http://www.shadowconnect.com

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Ross Macintyre]

Christoph Hellwig said:
> On Tue, Mar 22, 2005 at 04:32:04PM -0000, Ross Macintyre wrote:
>> Since you advise us to stay away from Adaptec, and I assume you are part
>> of the team that manages the Fedora system,
>
> I'm not associated with Fedora at all.
>
>> can you advise users what RAID
>> / Storage vendors to use? ie what quality vendors support Linux?
>
> LSI and 3ware for example do provide frequent driver updates, working
> managment tools and cooperate with the linux community very well.

Just for the record, I found the help taht I got from mark_salyzyn far
better than any I got from LSI (though they did try).


-- 
Ross Macintyre (raz@macs.hw.ac.uk)

Re: adaptec 2120S software under RedHat 8.0 and FC2

[Christoph Hellwig]

> > note that if adaptec simply opensourced their managment tools we
> wouldn't
> > have this problem at all. I wonder why Adaptec did that for the old
> > i2o-based controllers but not aacraid.  
> 
> Oh yes, that, worked hard on the powers-that-be to permit this. Could
> not release a substantial majority of it because it would violate
> licensed libraries (Zinc, being one of them, I am sorry to admit). So we
> release the engine and the raidutil. No logger, no remote communication
> engine, no GUI and no browser engine either. It was the best we could
> do.

Which is more than enough.

> Once released, and under a BSD license, the open source community failed
> to contribute one change to the sources. All it did was permit the tools
> to be packaged, archived and to continue in-perpetuity when
> compatibility libraries failed to work on newer installations.

Which is exactly what we need.  We don't need gazillions of new features
but code that can be carried forward easily and fixed where nessecary.