Re: HW Raid

[Camaleón <noelamac@gmail.com>]

On Mon, 15 Feb 2010 10:15:43 +1100, Alex Samad wrote:

(...)

> What I am looking at is the ability to monitor the array from within
> linux, sort of like mdadm does, so that if/when a drive goes faulty I
> will be notified. I would also like to be able to use smartctl on the
> individual drives so I can gather information from them whilst linux is
> running.

As per RAID monitoring inside OS, be *very* careful.

I own some Adaptec's 2020SA (zero-channel raid cards) which do not allow 
such thing, all the operations (rebuilding arrays, creating ones...) have 
to be done at BIOS level when using "aacraid" driver included in stock 
kernel.

Adaptec provides ASM (software to control this under linux) but only  
works when using the manufacturer's RAID card drivers :-/

I recommend a full review of this page:

Serial ATA (SATA) chipsets — Linux support status
http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

In regards with "smart" monitoring, I also have to warn you :-)

"smartmontools" provides that functionality but only with a few 
drivers/raid controller:

Checking disks behind RAID controllers
http://sourceforge.net/apps/trac/smartmontools/wiki/Supported_RAID-Controllers

> I have been looking at the Highpoint Rocket Raid 3530, this seems to fit
> the build for me, but thats from reading the doco.
> 
> I was wondering has any one on the list been using these cards ? what is
> the management software like and the monitoring

If I had to buy another RAID controller again, my money would go for 
"3ware" :-)

Greetings,

-- 
Camaleón