[CentOS] low end file server with h/w RAID - recommendations

[hw]

m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
> hw wrote:
>> m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>>> hw wrote:
>>>> Richard Zimmerman wrote:
>>>>> DO NOT buy the newer HPE DL20 gen9 or ML10 gen9 servers then
>>>>> (especially
>>>>> if using CentOS 6.x)
>>>>
> <snip>
>>> And I do *not* want to buy from HP, because their
>>> support is nothing like good.
>>
>> Indeed, I wouldn´t buy HP new.  They don´t even give you a price for
>> a new battery for an UPS but tell you to open a ticket to get a price
>> and expect you to pay for opening the ticket, and they have finally
>> managed to completely mess up their web site so that you can´t find
>> anything anymore.
>
> But wait, it's worse: the replacement *parts* have a different part number
> than the original. I had to replace a PSU on a blade enclosure, and had to
> get HP, or maybe a reseller, I forget, to tell me what the correct part
> number for the replacement part was, and, IIRC, there were both 6-digit
> number, or maybe 12....
> <snip>

Well, I ended up buying a new UPS because a replacement battery was
unavailable.  Now I wouldn´t buy anything but APC for an UPS anymore.

> [...]
>>> If you get a Dell, and one of their PERC cards, you're getting a
>>> rebranded LSI, sorry, Avago, um, who bought it last? Those are good
>>> and reliable, not super expensive.
>>
>> Those don´t work at all.  I had to return two of them because none of them
>> worked in any of the boards I tried them, and the smart arrays I replaced
>> them with work in the same boards.  Dell always had a reputation for
>> making incompatible hardware, and that experience proved it.
>>
>> Maybe they work when you have Dell hardware, but I have none.
>
> Oh, ok, I was assuming you did. No, if you're not buying Dell hardware,
> with their own PERC cards, get an LSI/AVAGO/whoever. They *do* work on
> anything, and MegaRAID software is not hard to find. Note: if you go that
> route, I have a script I found only that makes basic monitoring *much*
> easier than the hostile MegaRAID interface....

I wouldn´t say I don´t buy Dell, only that I haven´t yet.  HP is much
easier to get (perhaps everyone is throwing them out because they can´t
get firmware updates anymore).

There´s also something to HP hardware --- for example, what´s Dells
equivalent to an ML350?  I couldn´t find anything like it from Dell.