cannot use Adaptec RAID controller
 

hi all--


I am having trouble with my Red Hat Enterprise Linux WS3 system when I tried installing the Adaptec 1210SA Serial ATA RAID Controller. When purchasing the controller, it stated that it was compatible with Red Hat, but after opening the box and looking at the fine print, Adaptec states that it only "Officially" supports Red Hat 7.3 or 8.0

I talked to Adaptec Support about this, and they told me they do not have a rpm I can use, nor do they have the source code for this controller so I can compile it. After talking for a few minutes, they said I can try the aacraid module. I am currently having trouble even locating this module.

Can anyone point me in the direction of where to find this module and some steps on how to get my system working with the RAID controller?


Thanks in advance,
jobe

Well, just to let everyone know what happened with my RAID Controller issue...

I ended up purchasing the Adaptec 2410SA RAID Controller and returning the 1210SA.

I still do not know if the 1210SA controller will work, but if you have the extra $300, I would just get the 2410. The difference between the two controllers is that the 1210 is considered to be a "software" RAID controller, meaning that the OS takes care of performing the maintenance of the array. But the 2410 is a hardware RAID controller, meaning that it bypasses the OS and takes care of the maintenance itself.

Lesson learned: if you can afford it, the more expensive controller will work with Red Hat because the controller doesn't even use the OS for creation or maintenance of the RAID array.

Hope this can help someone in the future who is looking at getting a RAID controller for his/her system.

Again, if anyone has had luck with the 1210SA controller, please post to this thread as I would like to know what they did to get it to work.


Thanks.

jobe17 -- Thanks for the followup and the words of wisdom. Additionally, if it hasn't been said before, Welcome to LQ! -- J.W.

thanks a lot. what about my 2110?

Coomteng -

As long as the RAID controller says it has a microprocessor on it, meaning it is controlled on the hardware level, it SHOULD work fine on most operating systems.

Now, I am going to state here that the information I have provided here is for learning purposes only and should be taken at one's own risk. If you purchase a particular controller and it does not work with your OS, I will not be held responsible.

But...

Adaptec states the following as the advantages of a microprocessor-based RAID controller:

The two primary advantages are: Performance, and advanced RAID functionality. Microprocessor-based RAID uses a dedicated (onboard) intelligent microprocessor to handle all of the RAID functions - resulting in significantly fewer calls to the host microprocessor. This frees up the host CPU and thus results in greater system performance. Furthermore, the dedicated RAID microprocessor is intelligent and is designed to handle advanced RAID features such as OCE (Online Capacity Expansion) and background initialization much more efficiently than driver software-based RAID.

This quote, along with other FAQ about the 2110S can be found here http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/pro...ctid=ASR-2110S

Thank you very much. I have rebuilded my kernel yet.

opinion
 

Hi all...

here is what i know now:


Yes, the 1210SA is a Software RAID controller. The card itself does not contain any ECCRAM or Hardware RAID LOGIC (XOR).
The card is supported on most new distros, but some IDE-software modules are bugged. ("Lost Interrupt" and or hangs)
The Card seems to work with Fedora Core 3.
The Striped array is detected as 2 HDDs on my system, not as one big good RAID array. (1210SA just a SATA io Card ???)

It looks that i have to set up a software RAID to get my Hardware RAID working. :/

The 2410SA has REAL HARDWARE RAID and 64 MB of fixed ECC SDRAM. Much more hardware, exactly 300$ more.
This is what you need for massive performance servers. (+ 4 HDDs)


But im still happy, in my home-server the processor is not used for many other tasks. (file server only) A MotherBoard with 66Mhz PCI would make me more happy.
Im unhappy about Adaptec's bisness strategy. the 1210SA should be called a Software-RAID card, or a S-ATA IO Card, or maybe a fake-RAID card.
The difference is not really documented.


... thats all folks

Just to interrupt. I have just purchased an Adaptec ATA RAID 1200A which I was told is hardware RAID. There is deffinately a chip on board the card so this confirmed what I thought originally; chip is an AMIIC something or other.

I can setup RAID 0+1 in DOS on my 4 x 80GB drives and the system returns 146GB. But when I load up Gentoo and try to fdisk and configure stuff, this space is not available.