[CentOS] Recommendations for a "real RAID" 1 card on Centos box

Fri Mar 14 16:00:02 UTC 2008
Therese Trudeau <mswotr at hotmail.com>

>>> You are definitely making your life more difficult then is needed
>>> for a desktop machine.
>>> 
>>> You said you have 4 hard disks. Make a software RAID1 out of the
>>> first two. Make a software RAID1 out of the second two and your
>>> good to go.
>>> 
>>> You can use dump/restore to backup the logical volumes on the second
>>> RAID set to an LV on the first.
>>> 
>>> No need for bare metal restore. Just need to get some working Linux
>>> distro to be able to read your files.
>>> 
>>> Going HW RAID for your desktop is going to get in the way of you
>>> getting things going and if your HW RAID card fails then what? Your
>>> drives will only work with another identical HW RAID card.
>>> 
>>> -Ross
>> 
>> That makes total sense Ross, I think I may end up going with software
>> raid and investing in a good hot swap redundant power supply that
>> would fit into an ATX case, combined with a good UPS.
>> 
>> That brings up a last question on possiblity of either a 3ware or
>> acrea RAID 1 cards.  I'm wondering how long I would be able to order
>> a replacement RAID card from either of 3ware or areea. Anyone know
>> if 3ware or acrea stock identical replacement cards for their SATA
>> 4 port raid cards for several years out?  Do they stock past the
>> three year warranty period?
> 
> The problem with this is if you buy the previous generation card
> because it's cheap and vendors stop selling it then you may be
> SOL.

OK I guess I have a solution now, I just called 3ware and spoke with sales.

On the 9650 se 4 port SATA cards, even if the card fails, they say that I could
use a different model card from them if the old card is dis continued;
because if the original fails, they designed it such that I could replace it with a different card.
I could even migrate a drive to a different motherboard-
and still read one of the mirrored drives.

For the 8006 series card, this is not the case, I would have to buy the
same model card, however I would be covered for at least four years,
because this card is still in production and probabally will be for another year,
and with the three year warranty I would be covered for at least four years
from purchase time if the card dies and I need a new one.

I need one of each card, a PCIe and an older design PCI.
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