Re: [Sheflug] ide raid card

["Netsonic" <netsonic [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gary Stimson" <gary [at] stimson.org.uk>
To: <shef-lug [at] list.sheflug.org.uk>
Sent: Tuesday, June 17, 2003 10:15 PM
Subject: Re: [Sheflug] ide raid card


> I've got a RocketRAID404 from www.scan.co.uk
> Its Highpoint chipset is supported by newer kernels and the Redhat 9.0
> installer recognises it. It is software RAID. which really means I just
> bought 4 more IDE pairs :-( I'm guessing that the Maplin card is also a
> Highpoint chipset because I think they're the cheapest chips.
>
> After reading around, I decided not to bother with the Highpoint drivers,
> which are reputed to be semi-proprietary and rather dodgy. Instead, I'm
> just using the card as extra IDE channels and running Linux's excellent
> software RAID on it. I tried running it without one drive, then
> re-inserting the drive. Linux happily got on with rebuilding the outdated
> array in the background... nice!
>
> Personally I'd recommend you get some more extra IDE channels with a
> supported chipset and use linux's software RAID.
>
> Gary
>
> ___________________________________________________________________
>
> Sheffield Linux User's Group -
> http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html
>
>   GNU the choice of a complete generation.

Yep, I agree with you here Gary 100%. I bought that same RocketRAID card
around 8 months ago.  The drivers are absolute garbage, and when I contacted
highpoint to complain about the standard of the drivers, the reply I got
back was clearly from someone who couldnt even understand English, never
mind write it!

With a 2 drive array, it takes an age to boot your system. If you hook up 4
drives (in a single array), the majority of OS's that Ive tried won't even
install because of the way it writes smaller sized files to disk.

About the only good thing Ive found with it is the performance of singles
drives that are attached, but not belonging to an array, as you are doing.

Software RAID is something Ive never honestly tried. Anybody have
significant experience of this ?

It might just make my card not such a joke after all!

Steve.


___________________________________________________________________

Sheffield Linux User's Group -
http://www.sheflug.co.uk/mailfaq.html

  GNU the choice of a complete generation.