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Re: New Mailserver...


On 11/01/2008, at 3:19 PM, Boris Pavlov wrote:
I am not a big fan of 3ware Raid controllers. Up until now it was because 
they were just plan SLOW...
just a quick word from me - simple, can not agree that they are slow. they are not SLOW (caps on) either - comparing to soft raid - same raid level on same computer. 

I am glad that you have had better success with them than I have.

My 'slow' experience comes from 2 Linux servers running
[ 40.834489] 3ware Storage Controller device driver for Linux v1.26.02.001. 
[   46.993597] scsi2 : 3ware Storage Controller
[ 46.993692] 3w-xxxx: scsi2: Found a 3ware Storage Controller at 0xafa0, IRQ: 22. 
[   46.993980]   Vendor: 3ware     Model: Logical Disk 0    Rev: 1.2
[ 46.995418] Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00 
[   46.995952]   Vendor: 3ware     Model: Logical Disk 2    Rev: 1.2
[ 46.997401] Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00 [ 46.999678] 3ware 9000 Storage Controller device driver for Linux v2.26.02.004.
0000:02:02.0 RAID bus controller: 3ware Inc 3ware 7000-series ATA-RAID (rev 01) 
	Subsystem: 3ware Inc 3ware Inc 3ware 7xxx/8xxx-series PATA/SATA-RAID
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 22
	I/O ports at afa0 [size=16]
	Memory at fe7ffff0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=16]
	Memory at fd800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=8M]
	Expansion ROM at fe7e0000 [disabled] [size=64K]
	Capabilities: [40] Power Management version 1
These cards are about 4 years old now - and the disks directly connected to the SATA controller are quicker than the the same disks connected via the 3ware 
controller - timing with 'dd' and hdparm.
And I have had similar experience on 1 windows server - which is running the same card. 
- Windows 2003 running as a file server.
- This will be replaced in the next 3 months with a NetAPP
As of yesterday, I have discovered that the standard etch 64 bit kernel 2.6.18-5 
does not work correctly with these cards and causes data corruption.
with which models in particular ? you've mentioned "cardS" could you share which ones you have problems with?
This is a new setup - with 7x identical 3ware 64 bit pci cards (have started a new thread regarding this problem). 



If you want to do it cheap, use Software Raid.
Completely agree. Cheaper raid than software raid is not currently available. 

Note: i did not said 'cost effective'.


:)
Personally - I would use some sort of SAS/ SCSI Raid for the boot disks, and use an external storage such as 'Infortrend' or NetApp depending on budget. I really dislike internal mass storage. 

Cheers

Andrew

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