RE: Re: RAID recommendations?

["Paul Gordon" <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Thanks Noel, will take a look...
=20
No luck on the caddies yet, - still concentrating on the controller
options=
at the moment....
=20
Paul G.
=20

________________________________

From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx on behalf of noel_pilot
Sent: Fri 16/09/2005 12:43
To: UKHA_D Group
Subject: [ukha_d] Re: RAID recommendations?



Hi Paul,
Im looking at something very similar, this highpoint card looks like
it may just do the job.
review here...  http://www.tweaktown.com/document.php?dType=3Dreview&dId=3D=
716
hth
Noel
p.s. any luck findding decent cheapish sata caddies??


--- In ukha_d@xxxxxxx, "Paul Gordon" <paul@p...> wrote:
> Thanks, but I should have probably made clear that for various
reasons (NONE of which are anything to do with any kind of
*NIX/Windows zealotry), in this particular instance the storage server
would definately be a windows box, - most likely XP MCE... (but
possibly 2003 server)
>=20
> But OS choices aside, at the moment I'm more interested in narrowing
down my hardware choices... - there are quite a few suitable cards
available from the likes of Promise/Highpoint and others, with prices
ranging from =A350-odd to =A3300-odd
>=20
> One that I'm giving serious consideration to at the moment is the
Highpoint RocketRaid RR1820A 8Ch SATA Raid Adaptor, which can be had
for about =A3160 delivered...
>=20
> This has the following features that I'm attracted to...
>=20
> 8 SATA ports - I can add a few drives now, and have expansion
capability later as/when I need
> PCI  *and*  PCI-X compatible (so I can use my current m/board with a
PCI slot, but have an upgrade path to a PCI-X slot later)
> Arrays can be expanded by adding more drives (without data loss I
believe)
> Has a "gigabyte boundary" feature so that drives of very
slightly
different sizes can be mixed in an array with minimal loss of capacity
> Reasonable price!
>=20
> BUT!!!
>=20
> I have had bad experiences in the past with Highpoint controllers
(embedded motherboard ones that is), and I know a few other people
have in the past as well... - however, it may well be the case that
things have improved since I last used a Highpoint controller, so what
I'm really most interested in is personal experiences (good or bad),
that might help sway my decision...
>=20
> Cheers.
>=20
> Paul G.
>=20
>=20
>
> ________________________________
>
> From: ukha_d@xxxxxxx on behalf of David Greaves
> Sent: Thu 15/09/2005 19:56
> To: UKHA_D Group
> Subject: Re: [ukha_d] RAID recommendations?
>
>
>
> If it's a dedicated box for personal use as a server then consider
linux
> and sw raid.
>
> You get excellent managment (mdadm or EVMS), great performance and you
> can use commodity (none-accelerated) cards, mix IDE, SATA (and, god
> forbid, even USB or remote drives in a push!). RAID 0,1,5,6,10 and
many
> other combinations.
>
> You can run Samba to share with other systems and have excellent
> web-based admin.
>
> A big benefit over HW raid is that if the card dies in a couple (or 5)
> years and is not made anymore then you're not toasted! (and this
happens
> more than you may expect!). You can also migrate over to larger drives
> and/or faster controller cards. You can upgrade the motherboard
> underneath to say an AMD64 with whatever super IO exists in a few
years
> and it will all just carry on working.
>
> I run a 1.2Tb raid5 system with 6x250Gb SATA and a 250Gb PATA as a hot
> spare (started life as a 4 disk PATA BTW). It runs on an old 1200Mhz
> machine and provides plenty of performance for editing multi-Gb video
> files whilst reading and writing multiple TV programmes.
>
> Sure I couldn't run a cable head-end from it but!!!
>
> If you want to know more then just ask.
>
> David
>
>
> Paul Gordon wrote:
>
> > Is anyone actually using an IDE or SATA RAID card?
> >
> > Looking around, I see an increasing number of choices appearing
now, -
> > many more cards support more advanced RAID modes than was the
case a
> > year or so ago, and prices seem to have dropped quite a bit as
well.
> >
> > Knowing that my DVD server is going to run out of storage in a
few
> > months, I'm intending to rebuild my whole storage solution, and
this
> > time I plan to do it "properly"
> >
> > a NAS solution like the Buffalo Terrastation will be in the
running as
> > well, but I also want to look at a traditional storage server as
well,
> > - since I think this may offer me more flexibility...
> >
> > So I am looking for personal recommendations for RAID
controllers...
> >
> > - I'll consider either IDE or SATA - but I'd prefer to make the
switch
> > to SATA now... (or SATA-2 for that matter)
> > - I'll consider either PCI or PCIe cards, - PCIe would require
> > purchasing a new motherboard as well to support it, but if that's
what
> > it takes, then so be it...
> > - I'd prefer cards that support at least 4 drives, more are fine,
but
> > don't wan't to use 2-port SATA cards really...
> > - Not too bothered about the price (shock!) - I'm prepared to pay
good
> > money if the features, quality & reliability justifies it, -
but
> > within limits... - above =A3200-=A3300 is probably getting into
silly
> > money territory for this excercise...
> > - RAID 5 support is a must.
> > - Controllers that allow for array expansion in the future would
be
> > preferred, - either by upgrading to larger drives, or by allowing
an
> > array to span across more than 1 card... (although an 8-port card
will
> > probably see me right for quite a while!)
> > - Hot spare support would be nice, but not essential, - if/when a
> > drive fails, I don't have a problem having to replace it
myself...
> >
> >
> > Also looking for recommendations for hot-pluggable SATA
caddies....
> >
> > Note, - I've already searched around and found plenty of
controllers
> > that I could choose, - what I am after now is personal
experiences and
> > recommendations...
> >
> > TIA
> >
> > Paul G.
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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