>>>> 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