[CentOS] Software Raid 6

Sun Sep 16 13:28:20 UTC 2007
Feizhou <feizhou at graffiti.net>

Juan C. Valido wrote:
> How slow and how reliable is software raid 6 on CentOS 5. The system I'm
> going to use is A socket 939 dual core Athlon, 4 gigs of ram and a 3ware
> 7506-8 controller. Its mostly going to be used for storage (Movies, MP3s
> etc.). Thanks.
> 

The 7506 does not have any cache. Its ASIC chips have very limited 
storage. You are far better off running in raid10 with the 75xx and 85xx 
  series. Those cards are especially slow when you get a degraded array 
in raid5 or raid6 (not sure if the 75xx or the 85xx support raid6) mode 
due to the lack of cache.

So you get the benefit of multiple spindles but I personally will not 
use anything but raid1 or raid10 with a 75xx or 85xx series 3ware board.