Hi All,
I read the posts about the RAID devices on this particular server.
Pardon my inaction, but I am still at the stage of deciding whether I
should upgrade it or not (And see if any particular distributions will
support it out of the box). Beginner thouh I am, would prefer to get the
hardware right first!
My own logic with software vs hardware raid is that the Linux SW raid
drivers may only possibly be written in C, whereas the firmware on a
raid card is likely written in i386 assembly language and packed into a
flash ROM. C, while it uses optimizations through the compiler, I would
be guessing produces much fatter code than asm i386 would be. Given that
whatever code is running the RAID array, it is fundamental to the
performance of the whole system.
With this particular server the raid device is on a SIMM-like device. It
would be preferable to upgrade this over using another precious
expansion slot. What I would look for in a particular module is a CPU of
some sort and Memory of some sort. This would be a good indication that
it does the work in hardware(?). Regarding the use of SW Raid, could I
suggest that the SW (Probalby C) would introduce a huge latency over the
speed of the SSD's? Pardon me if I am wrong. Then it goes back to the
idea of using SATA SSD's with a dedicated controller card.
It would be great to get some directions on this from experienced linux
users. I will of course do my research using the data sheet for this
particular server, though thought it more prudent to get some advice
first rather than chasing the rainbows.
Any advice welcome.
Cheers,
Peter Simmonds
PS Will get onto the SE linux situation later. It is working basically
at least now.
_______________________________________________
Linux-users mailing list
Linux-users@lists.canterbury.ac.nz
http://lists.canterbury.ac.nz/mailman/listinfo/linux-users
