Re: SATA drives performance

On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Richard Neill <rn214(at)cam(dot)ac(dot)uk> wrote:
>
>
> Jeremy Harris wrote:
>>
>> On 12/24/2009 05:12 PM, Richard Neill wrote:
>>>
>>> Of course, with a server machine, it's nearly impossible to use mdadm
>>> raid: you are usually compelled to use a hardware raid card.
>>
>> Could you expand on that?
>
> Both of the last machines I bought (an IBM X3550 and an HP DL380) come with
> hardware raid solutions. These are an utter nuisance because:
>
>  - they can only be configured from the BIOS (or with a
>    bootable utility CD). Linux has very basic monitoring tools,
>    but no way to reconfigure the array, or add disks to empty
>    hot-swap slots while the system is running.
>
>  - If there is a Linux raid config program, it's not part of the
>    main packaged distro, but usually a pre-built binary, available
>    for only one release/kernel of the wrong distro.
>
>  - the IBM one had dodgy firmware, which, until updated, caused the
>    disk to totally fail after a few days.
>
>  - you pay a lot of money for something effectively pointless, and
>    have less control and less flexibility.
>
> After my experience with the X3550, I hunted for any server that would ship
> without hardware raid, i.e. connect the 8 SATA hotswap slots direct to the
> motherboard, or where the hardware raid could be de-activated completely,
> and put into pass-through mode. Neither HP nor IBM make such a thing.

Yep. And that's why I never order servers from them. There are
dozens of reputable white box builders (I use Aberdeen who give me a 5
year all parts warranty and incredible customer service, but there are
plenty to choose from) and they build the machine I ask them to build.
For hardware RAID I use Areca 1680 series, and they also provide me
with machines with software RAID for lighter loads (slave dbs,
reporting dbs, and stats dbs)