On Sat, 16 May 2015 05:38:30 -0700 (PDT) Leslie Rhorer <lrhorer@mygrande.net> wrote: > On Sunday, May 3, 2015 at 10:30:03 PM UTC-5, Bob Bernstein wrote: > > On Sun, 3 May 2015, Leslie Rhorer wrote: > > > > > Many specifically list SuSe and Red Hat, but very > > > few list Debian [...] > > > > And you have your answer: send money to RH. They used > > I don't have money to send to Red Hat. First of all, one reason > (although not the only one, by far) I am using Linux is it is free of > commercial restraints. Secondly, these are not commercial systems. > These are a pair of home RAID arrays used primarily to store a > personal video library. Thirdly, I rather dislike Red Hat's > distribution and administration system. I much prefer Debian. I am sorry if this is a dumb question, but if this is a home system, why can you not go for more commodity hardware? While I do recognize there are differences between SAS and SATA, do you really need SAS in a home setting - for a media library? SATA may be the simplest/cheapest solution, to my way of thinking. I would assume there are far more people running Linux with a SATA system than there are for SAS, so it should be more widely tested, and information would not be so scarce. Granted, this might be less true when you are talking about high-end RAID controllers, but still. (Note: I know next to nothing about SAS and expensive RAID controllers, so I may be way off-base here) > Just as an aside, this is a Debian user forum. Frankly, it > strikes me as a bit strange to advise someone asking a question > concerning an ordinary use of Debian to go somewhere else. Here I agree with you. OTOH, if this had been for a "enterprise" setting, a suggestion to check out RH - with their level of commercial support - would not necessarily be a bad one. Canonical might have been another one, I haven't personally dealt with them. > > to be very good at reliably supporting a lot of > > different hardware. (I'm out of that consulting > > biz now...for some time now.) > > Honestly, IMO this isn't primarily an issue of hardware support. > It is an issue of informational support by the hardware > manufacturers. They post lots of fru-fru information about their > product without posting the information one really needs to know to > make an informed purchase. Very few of the HBA manufactureer inform > the user whether the card at hand supports LBA 48 or not. I have > purchase several controllers only to find the drive size limited to > 2T. Many devices that only specify RH and / or SuSE are in fact > perfectly well supported under Debian and most of its derivatives. > Many just report Linux support, when in fact there is no support > under many distros. Again, I agree. In this scenario, I would find a couple of controllers that would seem to suit my purpose, and contact the manufacturers directly with very specific questions. One of these questions would be whether or not the controller is supported by the Linux kernel itself, or if it would require third-party software/modules to work, and if so, what systems those are available for. Since there are so many distributions that are based on Debian, and especially Canonical seems to have a little clout with manufacturers, I would suggest to them to investigate support for Debian-based systems. Not supporting it in this day and age would seem strange to me. > > There are many fates worse than becoming, for certain > > of one's key systems, a RH customer. Even more so if > > making money, or deliverables, is part of the job of > > said key systems. > > It is not, and economy is definitely a key consideration, here. > What's more, I am not asking the OS to support any particular > hardware. What I am asking - even if it were REd Hat - is whihc > hardware is supported. That really should not be that difficult a > question. (Yes, I understand why it is in fact a difficult question.) Yes, it is indeed a difficult question. This is just personal preference, but I would as far as possible avoid hardware that isn't supported by the Linux kernel itself, since that would leave me at the mercy of the manufacturer with regard to future support and updates. > > It boils down to the question "How much of my time do > > I want to waste looking for those hens' teeth, and, > > These aren't hen's teeth. They are type O-Positive blood donors. > I just need the bag labeled with the blood type so I know which one > to choose. > > > given what my time is worth, do I want to take that > > hit?" > > As opposed to the huge amount of time it would take me to switch > operating systems? Few, if any, of the dozens of scripts I have in > place to manage the system would work out of the box. They would > need to be re-written. Nearly all of the software I have written > would have to be re-compiled, and some might need to be re-written. > I would also have to spend a lot of time getting far more familiar > with Red Hat than I am now. No, by far the most economical route is > just to buy HBAs that are compatible with the OS I have now. There really isn't much I can help you with, I'm afraid, other than to recommend you press the manufacturers of hardware that might suit your purposes to give you the information you need. If they aren't willing/able to tell a potential buyer what they need to know before purchase, I would stay far away. Also, you can ask them directly which of their products they would recommend you use. Get it in writing, if necessary. If you *do* find a controller that supports the features you need and is reported to work with Debian, I would ask here and do some searches to find out what experiences people have with that model specifically. Other than that, I can only wish you the best of luck :) Petter -- "I'm ionized" "Are you sure?" "I'm positive."
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