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Re: Supermicro SAS controller



On Thu, 03 May 2012 20:27:02 +0000, Camaleón wrote:

> On Thu, 03 May 2012 18:27:55 +0000, Ramon Hofer wrote:
> 
>> On Thu, 03 May 2012 16:30:00 +0000, Camaleón wrote:
>> 
>> <snipped>
>>
>>> 2/ The card's manufacturer provides a set of CLI tools (also GUI/web
>>> based) to control all of the aspects of the RAID volume (from array
>>> creation/modification/reconstruction/rebuilding/deletion/on-the-fly
>>> volume expansion/current array status... up to firmware update, if
>>> possible)
>> 
>> Didn't find any infos about that :-?
> 
> There's some useful information in one of the links I sent before:
> 
> http://wiki.debian.org/LinuxRaidForAdmins

Maybe I miss something but the page doesn't say anything about cli tools 
of the megaraid cards :-?


>>> 3/ The manufacturer is enough linux-friendly so that in the event of a
>>> problem you can contact them with no regrets :-)
>> 
>> Hope I don't have to find out about that ;-)
> 
> Bugs do exist also in good hardware, so better having a person over the
> wire that at least understands what you are talking about :-)

Thats absolutely true!

 
>> Btw: Wouldn't it be better to use software raid? In case of failure of
>> the controller I would need to get exactly the same card again? Or if I
>> ever want to exchange the mainboard and use one with a SAS controller
>> onboard?
> 
> Some people prefer "mdamd" (linux raid) instead using a hardware raid
> card (it can be more flexible, yes) but IMO, a good raid card provides
> better performance and it's easier to manage than a software raid
> system.
> 
> In case of disasterous raid failure you depend completely on the
> manufacturer and what are the option they can provide (although data
> recovery can be usually done at professional labs).

My data isn't so important that it would justify restoring it with 
professional help.

Still I have to do backups of the really important stuff to dvd or a 
seperate external drive...


>> Thanks for all your help and advices! Ramon
> 
> Just an additional note. By reading the chosen card specs it seems it
> does not support a RAID 6 level (which is better than RAID 5 because it
> allows the failure 2 disks) so that can be a handycap.

This should be no problem. I plan to use four slots without raid for 
mythtv.
I already have a 4x 1.5 TB disks raid 5 and another 4x 2 TB disks raid 5. 
When I want to add more disks I can e.g. go for 3 TB disks and set 4 of 
them up as another raid5.
Like this I can use disks with different sizes.

I'm thinking of combining the arrays then to a lvm...
But I don't know if this is a good idea as it adds more complexity :-?


Best regards
Ramon


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