Re: Areca SATA cards

[Cian Davis <davisc@skynet.ie>]

Ronny Adsetts wrote:
> The 3ware uses the 3w_9xxx (in sarge kernels) while the Areca uses arcmsr (not in sarge).
>   

I noticed that - but the 3Ware site suggested the 9550 driver wouldn't
be in until the 2.6.14 kernel. And I don't want to buy a 9550 and find
that it doesn't work with a stock sarge kernel.

> I *believe* the arcmsr driver is now in the upstream kernel (and so in the latest Debian sid kernels).
>   

At least now I know what module to look for.....

> I've not used the 9550, only the 9500 which works fine. I believe you can have the disks in pass-thru (JBOD) mode but have never used it in this way. When you have an array defined, you only get the array.
>
> The command line tools and the web-server admin/monitor all work fine for both tools.
>   

I assume they are a compile job rather than in sarge/apt? Any experience
with using OCE? It is a click-and-pray job or reliable? Any stats on how
long a rebuild takes?

> Go for 3ware if you don't want the admin overhead of maintaining the
> modules. They're a little cheaper and work well enough.

The reason I'm looking at the 9550 is the SATA2 capability. We're a
computer society so won't be replacing the hardware and would like some
amount of future-proof. That's also why I'm considering the Areca -
PCI-E connectivity is nice. Mind you, the budget may not stretch to even
a 3ware card.

> One difference to note: with the version of the Areca driver I have, there are no syslog/kernel messages when disks die or are removed. Hopefully this has changed in later versions. The alarm is quite loud though. ;-)
>   

The server room is 2 buildings away so that's not much good. No
notification if a disk dies is a kicker....

Thanks for your help.

Regards,
Cian