[gentoo-user] OT SATA card recommendations

[gentoo-user] OT SATA card recommendations

[Mike Williams]

Hey,

In the next month or so I wish/need to make some storage modifications, I'm 
running out of space, quickly.
Currently it's a horrible hodge podge of 2 RAID5s in one VG, and 1 RAID10 in 
another VG. 1 of 3 is PATA other 2 SATA (RAID5), 5 of 5 SATA (RAID5), and 4 
of 4 PATA (RAID10), 1 of 1 PATA (boot and OS). Spread over the on-board PATA 
controller, a PCI 2 port PATA (for the 4 drives in RAID10), and an 8 port 
marvell SATA card (which doesn't have a usable driver I can find after 
2.6.13).
That lot in a very old globalwin 302 (??) midi tower.
Yes, it's *hot*.

I already know I'm going for a Antec P180, so I'm limited to a maximum of 10 
drives, one boot disk, and a CD (something I'm missing now).
320GB drives are the best £/GB at the moment, even if they only give 298GB 
usable space.
10 x 298GB / RAID6 == just under twice what I've got already, and more 
redundancy.

So, the point in my post. I need a 12 port SATA card that works properly with 
open-source drivers (preferable in kernel).
Cost isn't the primary concern, even if this is only for home use.
I don't need, or in fact want, on-board RAID, software RAID is better in my 
opinion.
3x 4 ports is an option, at a push. I'd rather not lose the gigabit nic 
though.
I see that 3ware do a 12 port card, but it's over 500 quid! Cost may not be 
the primary concern, but 500 quid is still 500 quid!

Anyone with any experience?

Ta

-- 
Mike Williams

-- 
gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list

Re: [gentoo-user] OT SATA card recommendations

[Bryan Whitehead]

[-- Attachment #1: Type: TEXT/PLAIN, Size: 1802 bytes --]


You might want take a look at your numbers again. Using 500GB SATA disks 
or bigger means you don't need such expensive raid cards (or multiple raid 
cards)... Also, you have fewer moving parts to break.

On Mon, 17 Jul 2006, Mike Williams wrote:

> Hey,
>
> In the next month or so I wish/need to make some storage modifications, I'm
> running out of space, quickly.
> Currently it's a horrible hodge podge of 2 RAID5s in one VG, and 1 RAID10 in
> another VG. 1 of 3 is PATA other 2 SATA (RAID5), 5 of 5 SATA (RAID5), and 4
> of 4 PATA (RAID10), 1 of 1 PATA (boot and OS). Spread over the on-board PATA
> controller, a PCI 2 port PATA (for the 4 drives in RAID10), and an 8 port
> marvell SATA card (which doesn't have a usable driver I can find after
> 2.6.13).
> That lot in a very old globalwin 302 (??) midi tower.
> Yes, it's *hot*.
>
> I already know I'm going for a Antec P180, so I'm limited to a maximum of 10
> drives, one boot disk, and a CD (something I'm missing now).
> 320GB drives are the best £/GB at the moment, even if they only give 298GB
> usable space.
> 10 x 298GB / RAID6 == just under twice what I've got already, and more
> redundancy.
>
> So, the point in my post. I need a 12 port SATA card that works properly with
> open-source drivers (preferable in kernel).
> Cost isn't the primary concern, even if this is only for home use.
> I don't need, or in fact want, on-board RAID, software RAID is better in my
> opinion.
> 3x 4 ports is an option, at a push. I'd rather not lose the gigabit nic
> though.
> I see that 3ware do a 12 port card, but it's over 500 quid! Cost may not be
> the primary concern, but 500 quid is still 500 quid!
>
> Anyone with any experience?
>
> Ta
>
>

-- 
Bryan Whitehead
Email:driver@megahappy.net