We are preparing for a new file server (Dell 2970) with an external disk array with integrated RAID (raidking.com). The array presents via Ultra 320 SCSI. We are looking for anyone that has had experience or opinions on SCSI cards without RAID that have a good performance working under CentOS 5.x. Any suggestions/comments on the controllers with large storage especially at or above 2tb would be appreciated.
Any help would be appretiated and any additional information that is needed please ask.
Thank you, Rob Lines
If you are doing Ultra320 I have had good luck with Dell's PERC 4/DC, I have since upgraded to SAS and PERC 5e.
-Ross
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From: centos-bounces@centos.org [mailto:centos-bounces@centos.org] On Behalf Of Rob Lines Sent: Wednesday, December 05, 2007 12:33 PM To: centos@centos.org Subject: [CentOS] SCSI controller suggestions for a 5.x server? We are preparing for a new file server (Dell 2970) with an external disk array with integrated RAID (raidking.com). The array presents via Ultra 320 SCSI. We are looking for anyone that has had experience or opinions on SCSI cards without RAID that have a good performance working under CentOS 5.x. Any suggestions/comments on the controllers with large storage especially at or above 2tb would be appreciated. Any help would be appretiated and any additional information that is needed please ask. Thank you, Rob Lines
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Rob Lines wrote:
We are preparing for a new file server (Dell 2970) with an external disk array with integrated RAID (raidking.com http://raidking.com). The array presents via Ultra 320 SCSI. We are looking for anyone that has had experience or opinions on SCSI cards without RAID that have a good performance working under CentOS 5.x. Any suggestions/comments on the controllers with large storage especially at or above 2tb would be appreciated.
the dell 2850's I've been bringing up have a dual channel LSI Logic ultra320 scsi controller built in, these work quite well. I don't know offhand if they have an external scsi connector, however. I'd suggest the equivalent LSI Logic SCSI card, I believe its the 53C10xx series, in PCI-X or PCI Express X4, whichever your server has...
someone else said PERC, those are Dell's raid controllers, obviously not what you want with an external SCSI RAID
I'm curious why you chose SCSI instead of SAS at this point in time? External SCSI cabling is expensive and trouble-prone. _ALWAYS_ make sure _EVERYTHING_ is shut off completely before touching those external cables. Don't cheap out on the cables, either.
John R Pierce wrote:
I'd suggest the equivalent LSI Logic SCSI card, I believe its the 53C10xx series, in PCI-X or PCI Express X4, whichever your server has...
ok, thats this card in PCI Express http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/scsi_hbas/ls...
or this in PCI-X http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/scsi_hbas/ls...
these are OEM'd by all kinda folks including IBM, Sun, Dell & HP.
the drivers are natively supported in virtually every OS made. Linux, Solaris, you name it. most all the big RISC server vendors have used LSI Logic SCSI on their servers for years.
John R Pierce wrote:
Rob Lines wrote:
We are preparing for a new file server (Dell 2970) with an external disk array with integrated RAID (raidking.com
The array presents via Ultra 320 SCSI. We are looking for
anyone that
has had experience or opinions on SCSI cards without RAID
that have a
good performance working under CentOS 5.x. Any
suggestions/comments
on the controllers with large storage especially at or
above 2tb would
be appreciated.
the dell 2850's I've been bringing up have a dual channel LSI Logic ultra320 scsi controller built in, these work quite well. I don't know offhand if they have an external scsi connector, however. I'd suggest the equivalent LSI Logic SCSI card, I believe its the 53C10xx series, in PCI-X or PCI Express X4, whichever your server has...
someone else said PERC, those are Dell's raid controllers, obviously not what you want with an external SCSI RAID
Well Dell doesn't make RAID controllers ;-), they're always rebranded, the high-end ones are always LSI megaraid. The Dell PERC 4/DC is the LSI megaraid 320e (PCIe). Hell even Dell's external storage enclosures are rebranded LSI storage enclosures and the new line of Dell PV 3000 embedded RAID enclosures, you guessed it LSI storage enclosures. LSI and Dell are best buddies.
I had a pair of iSCSI servers setup with these hooked into 2 PV 20x external enclosures and the performance was decent.
I'm curious why you chose SCSI instead of SAS at this point in time? External SCSI cabling is expensive and trouble-prone. _ALWAYS_ make sure _EVERYTHING_ is shut off completely before touching those external cables. Don't cheap out on the cables, either.
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Sorry for the delay. I have been out of the office for a few days.
On Dec 5, 2007 10:11 PM, John R Pierce pierce@hogranch.com wrote:
Rob Lines wrote:
We are preparing for a new file server (Dell 2970) with an external disk array with integrated RAID (raidking.com http://raidking.com). The array presents via Ultra 320 SCSI. We are looking for anyone that has had experience or opinions on SCSI cards without RAID that have a good performance working under CentOS 5.x. Any suggestions/comments on the controllers with large storage especially at or above 2tb would be appreciated.
the dell 2850's I've been bringing up have a dual channel LSI Logic ultra320 scsi controller built in, these work quite well. I don't know offhand if they have an external scsi connector, however. I'd suggest the equivalent LSI Logic SCSI card, I believe its the 53C10xx series, in PCI-X or PCI Express X4, whichever your server has...
someone else said PERC, those are Dell's raid controllers, obviously not what you want with an external SCSI RAID
I'm curious why you chose SCSI instead of SAS at this point in time? External SCSI cabling is expensive and trouble-prone. _ALWAYS_ make sure _EVERYTHING_ is shut off completely before touching those external cables. Don't cheap out on the cables, either.
In our case it is because the enclosure we are using has all the RAID support built into it. So it presents to the computer as a scsi 320. The enclosure itself is all SATA drives. In our case we had need for a large volume of drive space with as simple a solution for DR as possible and an attempt to minimize the reliance on support for the RAID card. We currently have an adaptec with two external drive enclosures that gives us a hard time periodically and is most likely related to the age of the installed OS but we didn't want to deal with the same thing in a couple years.
We did have the option of it presenting with fiber channel but as we only have a single machine that will be connected to it that seemed like a more complicated and expensive solution for little to no advantage.
Thank you for the suggestions on the cards. They were the same family that the company supplying the enclosure suggested. I was really concerned with having support for it without a lot of extra work and worry every time a new kernel was released.
Thanks for all the help, Rob
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John R Pierce -
Rob Lines -
Ross S. W. Walker