BT cards work well and BusLogic/Mylex has done an admirable
job of supporting Linux. We used to use them exclusively, but have
since moved in the direction of the IntraServer cards. They also
support Linux and have provided us with excellent service and availability
as well as affordable pricing. Their multi-function cards are also
quite neat to work with. Their SCSI/Ethernet (single and dual channel SCSI)
and 4 port ethernet cards are slick. Not for everyone, but slick.
>
> The DPT cards seem to work really well, though I wonder if the kernel
[...]
> The other problem with the DPT cards is that you can't check the array
> status without rebooting into their dos config stuff..
This is the primary reason we have kept away from the DPT
products.
> I just heard about another Linux supporting raid controler: icp-vortex.
> Their page looks intresting and they have monitoring software for Linux.
> Anyone here use them? Can anyone comment on their
> performance/reliability/drivers? They dont seem to offer ECC like the the
> DPT cards to (DPT cards will do full ECC from the cache all the way to the
> disk but it's expensive)..
ICP cards are available in 1,2,3 and 5 channel varieties in both
Ultra and Ultra Wide configurationsi (3 and 5 channel cards are only
offered as UW.) From the factory you can get a basic card that will do
RAID 0,1 (that you can upgrade later by plugging in a ROM module) or the
whole enchilada that will do RAID 0,1,4,5 and 10. They use a 72 pin SIMM
(FPM or EDO) for cache, 8-64 MB.
We've deployed about 12 of them since May, ranging from a single channel
RAID 0,1 card with 8 MB cache to the 5 channel with 64 MB cache set up
with several different RAIDs. On one channel there is a RAID 1 setup,
another has three drives in a RAID 5 configuration and another has 3 drives
in a RAID 0 configuration. The other two channels have three drives
each that are a single RAID 5 configuration. The maintenance and setup
for the RAID is currently all in firmware, with a software monitoring package
that runs under Linux. ICP maintains the driver (called GDT in the kernel)
and Red Hat 5.1 will allow you to install to a Vortex array. ICP is
currently working on a Linux port of all their maintenance software so
you will be able to do everything from within Linux in the not-too distant
future. For now the worst-case scenario requires you to reboot the machine
to access the firmware on the card.
--Kit
---- Kit Cosper Linux Hardware Solutions, Inc. cosper@linux-hw.com System solutions you can count on, system solutions that work. 1-888-LINUX-HW Now offering Alpha systems at 667MHz with 4 MB SRAM cache.
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