on 3-9-2008 5:36 PM Therese Trudeau spake the following: >>> So these cards are just plug n play? Just plug them in, no software or >>> drivers required, >>> all mirroring is managed by firmware built into the card RAID card itself? >> Drivers are required for all storage adapters(RAID or not). 3Ware >> handles raid in hardware, not in software, it has a bios which >> you'd typically use to configure the array, you can boot off of >> the array, etc. >> >> 3Ware also offers a management tool for linux (CLI and/or web >> based) which allows for monitoring, and controlling the adapter's >> configuration settings. >> >> 3Ware has had their linux drivers in the kernel for at least... >> 8 years now? maybe longer. So any linux distro should have no >> trouble detecting the card. The latest 9650 cards are pretty >> new and use a new driver, which may or may not be supported, >> CentOS 5.1 should work with it fine though(support for CentOS 4 >> was added almost a year ago, I think with v4.5) >> >> They also support hot swap, provided the interface to the disk >> supports it(typically a hot swap backplane). > > Great thanks for that info Nate, I just checked out their web site, looks like the 9500S-4LP would suit my needs > for a desktop machine. > > I've been leary about desktop RAID cards because a few years ago, I bought an adaptec 1210SA RAID card which supposedly does > RAID 1 I never could get the darn thing to work in my old windows machine and years later found out it is really a fake raid card. It's been collecting dust ever since > may as well throw it out. The drivers it required never worked with W2K. > > But the Centos server I use has adaptec SCSI RAID controller in it, I guess on the high end for SCSI RAID, adaptec is known for good raid cards, but the one I bought sure did nothing for me > for my desktop. > > _________________________________________________________________ Adaptec makes both true HW raid and re-sells fakeraid cards. I guess they wanted a piece of both pies. But 3ware only makes HW raid cards AFAIK. -- MailScanner is like deodorant... You hope everybody uses it, and you notice quickly if they don't!!!! -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: signature.asc Type: application/pgp-signature Size: 250 bytes Desc: OpenPGP digital signature URL: <http://lists.centos.org/pipermail/centos/attachments/20080310/0c1a6a72/attachment-0005.sig>