CentOS List spake the following on 8/29/2007 7:47 PM:
Hi ppl .
I am getting a IBM x3200.. This machine can only support up to 4 x 250GB SATA. I need to have a usable space of 500GB and mirror it to other 500GB. IBM proposed me to get 2 RAID cards. Do you guys think i can do raid 0 on the first 2 x 250GB HDD and raid 0 on the second 2 x 250GB hdd, both on hardware raid and then during the installation of centos 5, i raid 1 on both the 2 sets of hardware raids?
Thanks
Buy a single raid card that can support raid 10 or raid 1+0.
The card IBM recommended is only 0,1 and they will not warranty any parts which are not from IBM.
Then you could software raid the two raid sets, as they will show up looking like scsi devices. Is the card they recommend a true hardware raid card? Not a fakeraid like the ICH7 intel stuff. So IBM will not warranty the raid card. They have to warranty the rest of the system, and get a warranty on the raid card from the vendor. I have done it with HP several times because the crappy Adaptec raid cards they push are less than stellar performers, and their linux driver support seems way behind the windows drivers.
Which x3200 were you looking at? I could get up to 3.0 TB with 4 750 GB drives on the one I was just looking at. And optional raid5. You could just raid1 with 2 500GB drives.
The model i am getting is 436242A x32. IBM insisted that this machine is not tested with 500GB SATA, and insisted me to pick up 4 x 250GB. If this machine is able to support 2 x 500GB, I would just run software raid. The raid card IBM is proposing is a PCI card which cost abour USD$300. Can you recommend a good raid card which is able to do raid 10/1+0 and very well supported by CentOS 5?
Thanks
I see. I just went to IBM's custom shop and was playing with the "build it" options. You are buying it through the Express Options program which doesn't let you customize the systems. If IBM won't give you what you want, you can try some of the other makers like HP. Or you can get a 3ware (AMCC) raid card. They are the best supported SATA cards in linux.