WipeOut wrote:
>
> Which SATA RAID cards work natively on Centos 4.x??
>
> I have heard that the only one supported is the 3ware cards but not sure
> if that requires a driver to be added or if it just works out the box..
> Also would like to know of alternatives..
I am running a 3ware 9500S-12 card in our backup-to-disk server, and
while it does work out of the box with CentOS4 the driver complains of
strange errors. I have chosen to use the official downloaded driver
package from the 3ware website; the resulting .ko is much larger in
size, so I assume there's a lot more goodies in there. (mini HowTo below)
The throughput numbers aren't the best (I'm running two RAID5 hardware
configs, one of 6x 250gig, one of 6x 400gig) but the tools 3ware
provides are top notch! There's a commandline tool tw_cli that allows
full control of the card (including battery backup) and they even have a
webUI tool that is very, very nice. Free downloads, and you can even
upgrade your firmware from the cmdline in CentOS.
I couldn't be happier with the product, I don't need insane write speed
for this machine.
-te
===
[My mini howto, more of notes-to-self]
A kernel upgrade requires recompiling the module for the new kernel and
making a new initrd file.
Example: new kernel version 2.6.9-34ELsmp
1) backup RPM module:
cd /usr/src/
mkdir 2.6.9-34ELsmp
cp -a /lib/modules/2.6.9-34ELsmp/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko
2.6.9-34ELsmp/
2) change dev link so new compile uses the new kernel, while still
running the old kernel (see 3ware Makefile):
cd /usr/src/
rm -f linux
ln -s /lib/modules/2.6.9-34ELsmp/source linux
3) compile new module
cd /usr/src/3ware/<version> (i.e. /2.26.04.007/)
make clean
make
chmod 0755 3w-9xxx.ko
4) copy new module over stock RPM one and depmod
cp -a 3w-9xxx.ko
/lib/modules/2.6.9-34ELsmp/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko
depmod -a 2.6.9-34ELsmp
5) backup original initrd, make new one with new module
cd /boot/
cp -a initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img.orig
mkinitrd initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img.new 2.6.9-34ELsmp
(ls -l to see that new initrd is slightly larger now, safety check)
mv initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img.new initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img
6) reboot
--
Troy Engel | Systems Engineer
Fluid Inc. | http://www.fluid.com