On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 4:42 PM, David Boreham <david_list@boreham.org> wrote:
> On 8/22/2011 10:55 PM, Scott Marlowe wrote:
>>
>> If you're running linux and thus stuck with the command line on the
>> LSI, I'd recommend anything else. MegaRAID is the hardest RAID
>> control software to use I've ever seen. If you can spring for the
>> money, get the Areca 1680:
>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816151023 Be
>> sure and get the battery unit for it. You can configure it from an
>> external ethernet connector very easily, and the performance is
>> outstandingly good.
>
> Thanks. I took a look at Areca. The fan on the controller board is a big
> warning signal for me (those fans are in my experience the single most
> unreliable component ever used in computers).
I've been using Arecas for years. A dozen or more. Zero fan failures.
1 bad card, it came bad.
> Can you say a bit more about the likely problems with the CLI ?
The MegaCLI interface is the single most difficult user interface I've
ever used. Non-obvious and difficult syntax, google it. You'll get
plenty of hits.
> I'm thinking that I configure the card once, and copy the config
> to all the other boxes, so even if it's as obscure as Cisco IOS,
I've dealt with IOS and it's super easy to work with compared to MegaCLI.
> how bad can it be ? Is the concern more with things like a rebuild;
> monitoring for drive failures -- that kind of constant management
> task ?
All of it. I've used it before just enough to never want to touch it
again. There's a cheat sheet here:
http://tools.rapidsoft.de/perc/perc-cheat-sheet.html
> How about Adaptec on Linux ? The supercapacitor and NAND
> flash idea looks like a good one, provided the firmware doesn't
> have bugs (true with any write back controller though).
I haven't used the newer cards. Older ones had a bad rep for
performance but apparently their newer ones can be pretty darned good.
