Re: Experiences with LSI / Adaptec cards
On Tue, Sep 20, 2005 at 04:34:03PM +1000, David Harrison wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone had any experience with either of the
> following cards (do they work, do they suck etc) :
>
> MegaRAID SCSI 320-1LP
>
> MegaRAID SCSI 320-2E
>
> I'm interested to hear if anyone has any good experiences with Adaptec
> cards or models to recommend, I haven't seen a single list posting that
> seems to recommend them.
I've lately been using the MegaRAID cards DELL ships in it's 2800's and
2850's. We're using the PCI-E riser, which equates to the 320-2e. You
can purchase a version of this adapter built into the riser, and you can
purchase the adapter as an expansion card.
We're a little concerned about the expansion card because under load, as
it continually throws battery fast recharging and battery temperature
out-of-range errors. The adapter built into the riser doesn't do this.
I think this may be related to the case design, which doesn't seem to
provide very good air circulation to the expansion cards.
For comparison, we also purchased an Adaptec 39320A. The LSI cards are
more configurable. In our early testing, the Linux drivers for the
Adaptec weren't up to snuff. I think the drivers have been improved
since, but we were past our decision point by then.
If anyone has a MegaRAID 320-2e in production which you're monitoring
w/ megamon, I'd love to know if you're getting any error reports.
Those two cards seem to be it for the internal Ultra320 RAID market. I
wouldn't say either of them 'suck', as you say, but I wouldn't give
either one an A+ either. I'd like to spend more time w/ the Adaptec now
that the drivers seem to have been fixed, but haven't found the time...
--
Ron Peterson
Network & Systems Manager
Mount Holyoke College
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~rpeterso
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