[olug] Linux friendly SATA RAID controller

[Dan Linder]

Phil Brutsche wrote:
> Dan Linder wrote:
>   
>> My current home workstation has three SATA drives using the Linux "MD" 
>> RAID5 drivers.  It works quite well, but when I start doing file IO, the 
>> system gets sluggish because of the overhead of the RAID5 driver.
>>     
> Only 3? I've never had any major slowdowns on heavy writes, but I've
> always used RAID5 with 4+ drives on dual CPU machines...
>
>   
My system is also a VMWare Workstation system that I use for work, so 
the disk images can get quite big and that tends to keep the system tied 
up whenever I do big writes inside the guest systems.

>> I'm thinking of re-installing and using a true hardware RAID controller 
>> (I'm not interested in the quasi RAID controllers that some cards have 
>> that still require a software driver).  I have heard people recommend 
>> 3Ware, but are there any others that you've had good luck with?
>>     
>
> Keep in mind that *any* true hardware RAID card will be expensive - 4
> port SATA RAID is ~$300, 8 port SATA RAID is ~$400-500, and then there's
> the ~$130 battery module for the controller write cache.
>
>   
Yes, that's what I'm looking for.  I think I can get my boss to spring 
for a $300 card but I'll have to forego the battery module and the 
higher-end cards. :-\
> I use the LSI Logic MegaRAID SATA 300-8X RAID card with good results:
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118059
>
> Uses the same drivers and management utilties as the MegaRAID SCSI RAID
> cards.
>
>   
Are the lower end LSI Logic MegaRAID cards full hardware RAID or any 
other reason they wouldn't be justifyable in a Linux system?:
8240ELP - $179.99 - 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118087
8240XLP - $189.99 - 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118086
150-4 - $226.99 - 
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816118015

> I've heard good things about the Areca RAID controllers, but I haven't
> used any of 'em.
>
> If you're going to go 3ware I wouldn't go with anything older than a
> 9550 series controller - among other things those were the first to
> support NCQ.
>
>   
Good to know - the price difference between the two low-end models is 
not much, so I'll look at the 9550 series.
> I tend to avoid Adaptec RAID controllers like the plague. At one point
> in time their RAID controllers were decidedly Linux unfriendly
> (specifically their 2120S U320 SCSI RAID card and similar vintage SATA
> RAID controllers), but I haven't tried anything newer.
>
>   
Agreed - my AHA 2940 was a nice card in it's time, but their track 
record with Linux has been less than stellar.

Dan

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