[CentOS] Raid Cards

Fri Jun 9 00:18:34 UTC 2006
Gavin Carr <gavin at openfusion.com.au>

On Thu, Jun 08, 2006 at 08:08:57PM +0200, Lazy wrote:
> 2006/6/6, Feizhou <feizhou at graffiti.net>:
> 
> >Forget this proprietary software raid drivers. Just use the kernel
> >software raid capabilities. There has yet to appear a company that
> >manufactures bios on a chip raid cards that provide adequate or even
> >minimal linux driver support.
> >> (please don't tell me that 3ware is the only make to use, tw_cli is not
> >> exactly user friendly).
> >If you don't like hardware raid then there is nothing else for you.
>
> Check out areca. The driver is in tree (writen by areca). And it looks
> like they are actively supporting linux.
> 
> There was some nice performance comparison betwean linux compatible
> sata raid cards and areca performed really well. If my memory serves
> me well it was significantly faster then 3ware.
> Can't find the url now :(. So i have no arguments to support it now.
> But certainly areca it's worth a try.

I don't think the areca drivers are in the kernel tree yet - I believe
they're slated for inclusion in possibly 2.6.18. Certainly the CentOS4 
kernels don't include areca support.

They are pretty decent cards, but I wouldn't use them for boot disks
until they actually are in the stock kernel. For RHEL5/CentOS5 they
might be good.

Cheers,
Gavin