[mythtv-users] RAID5 ATA IDE hardware card recommendations for mythbackend machine

David myth at dgreaves.com
Thu Dec 9 10:44:20 UTC 2004


I thought I'd jump in too :)

I run 6 250Gb SATA disks on software raid5 (with a 250Gb ide partition 
as a hot standby!!)
I've had 2 disk failures (Maxtor FWIW) over the last few months.
No lost data (though it came close when one disk failed before the other 
came back from RMA)
Being able to get immediate expert advice from the linux-raid list saved 
my data.

I've also migrated the disks to a new machine (last night actually) - 
new motherboard etc - but more importantly - different SATA chipset! - 
no problems.

See here for more:
http://www.linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html

Are you aware that most raid5 cards are software raid?
This FAQ is essential reading (by linux sata guy Jeff Garzik) 
http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html

Also, I use a Promise TX4 card - I wanted another but it turns out they 
don't make them anymore. Ensure that when your hw-raid card dies the 
manufacturer still makes them and the new version has an O/S driver. If 
mine dies and I end up using a Marvell chipset then I don't care :)

There is also a raid5 'grow' utility with the evms project - I couldn't 
use it for various reasons but it's activley supported.

David


Bryan Brannigan wrote:

>What is the reliability of software RAID in the event of a motherboard
>failure?  Will I be able to recover my array?
>
>Can I add drives to the array later?
>
>
>On Wed, 8 Dec 2004 13:44:28 -0900, John Andersen
><jsa at video.homelinux.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>On Tuesday 07 December 2004 12:51, Andrew Plumb wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Hi Everyone,
>>>
>>>For those who do use hardware RAID5 cards for ATA IDE drives, which
>>>cards have you (not) had success with, for use in a mythtvbackend
>>>machine?  Or in any Linux-based machine for that matter?
>>>
>>>I'm pondering picking up something like a Promise FastTrak SX4000.
>>>      
>>>
>>Why bother.  Software raid easily outperforms any of these
>>raid cards,  Its Robust, Mature, Universally Supported, Open Source
>>and highly configurable.
>>
>>Oh, and did I say ROCK SOLID?
>>
>>--
>>______Jsa_________
>>    
>>



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