May I ask, why must it be hardware RAID? Linux's software RAID is
usually as fast -- and sometimes faster -- than hardware RAID:
http://www.linux.com/news/hardware/servers/8222-benchmarking-hardware-raid-vs-linux-kernel-software-raid
I've built a handful of 4TB+ software RAID systems, and it works
great. Red Hat and Ubuntu (9.10) both include a nice RAID management
GUI called Palimpsest. Linux's software RAID also has a couple of
advanced features that most hardware cards don't. The best feature: you
can upgrade or migrate your hardware without any dependence on a
particular hardware RAID card. All you need is SATA.
My advice would be to turn off the RAID function in your Dell card,
so it treats all the disk as simple SATA drives (sda, sdb, sdc ... sdf),
and then set up software RAID.
--Derek
P.S.> I recently lost data on a top-end hardware RAID system because a
3ware card had a compatibility issue with some hard drives. A few weeks
later both 3ware and the drive Mfr. issued firmware updates to "fix" it.
P.P.S.> I recently had a top-end LSI hardware RAID system fall over due
to an un-acknowledged drive compatibility issue. I had no choice but to
swap out the LSI card for a 3ware card. Did I mention that Linux
software RAID is awesome?
On 01/03/2010 03:11 PM, Ryan Allen wrote:
Hi SSL,
I just purchased 4 new 1TB SATA drives, and attempted to upgrade my
RAID 5 system to 3 TB. however my Dell CERC 6 channel SATA RAID card
will only let me build a RAID volume up to 2 TB.
I couldn't find any firmware upgrades on this horribly supported
el-cheepo raid card. At least its been a solid work horse, with
little problems aside from a horrible UI utility called afacli.
I am looking for a hardware RAID card, PCI-X (100MHz), that has an
fairly easy to use UI that is well supported in Linux. It should
also take advantage of ALL my drive space for an expected volume of a
little under 3TB.
Any suggestions? I would like to not spend $550 on an fancy 3ware
card either. Anything in the $100 range?
Thanks,
Ryan
