Looking for large cheap IDE RAID setup
 

I would like to setup a cheap storage array under linux using ide raid. I would like to have around 600gb - 1.2 tbs of room using 300gb ide drives.

1. Are there large drive issues under linux that I might run into? (I will probably choose some flavor of RH, 7.3 and up)

2. Do vanilla redhat installations support large raid setups, or do I need to modfy something (e.g. the kernel) to add support?

3. Does anyone have any suggestions on IDE RAID controllers that are fully (and easily) support under rh linux.

4. Any thing pieces of advice?

Thanks, Mark

how many drives do you have?

I haven't purchased any yet. Trying to get all my ducks in a row before buying.

I was thinking of starting out with 3 x 300gb drives, going raid 5 and getting 600 gb's

well for a start i will say that most IDE RAID controllers use drivers to RAID.

You need SCSI to do a true RAID. So if you can accept that then you can look at IDE RAID devices.

That's fine. As long as it's RAID enough that I can replace a drive if one goes out, and not suffer data loss, I don't really care if it's hardware RAID ... do you know if there is any upper size limit on drives that RH linux can address?

I think the size limitations is on the controller and BIOS, not positive on that.

Here is a card that will do what you want:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduc...115-016&depa=1

Linux is able to handle just about any capacity though you will have to check the kernel options and enable an option which I can not remember. If you are going with IDE or SATA controllers, you can go with any brand. Highpoint has open source drivers for kernel versions 2.4.x and 2.6.x. Many other brands do not. 3ware is the best SATA hardware controller that can handle 2 TB per drive. You may have to do a combination of RAID 5 and LVM because not many controllers comes with more than four unless you have 64-bit PCI slots. LVM will give you more storage so you can easily increase your storage. Software RAID 5 will take a lot of processor usage, so use an atleast a dual processor computer. Hardware RAID 5 will be controlled by the controller, so you can use single processor system. You can use three or four IBM/Hitachi 400 GB SATA hard drives. They are fast and they cost about $1 per GB.

BTW, your setup will not be cheap after you are done.

Sorry about reviving an old thread, but.......

I'm about to do the same thing for me and a friend and wondered how you got on / what it cost you - if you don't mind me asking?

Cheers

Pete

Well I found out that there are some older kernel limitations, but they are fairly old, I only know in relation to RH distributtions, I think if you go anything above 7.3 you are ok.

Anyways, I ended up ordering 3 300gb drives and a adaptect 4 channel raid card. I think it's fairly expensive, but nothing like scsi or SATA. My RAID card is still on backorder so I haven't set it up yet. If I remember I'll try and update this thread when I get it setup.

The adaptec card I got does suppurt redhat at least to 7.3.

So I finally got my raid card from Adaptec. It's a ATA RAID 2400A card supports RAID 0,1,5 up to eight drives. Comes with four IDE ATA100 cables with only one connector. So if you are planning on doing all 8 drives you'll need to have your own cables.

First off, this card is long, it stretches all the way across the case, so if you have a cramped case make sure to make some room for the card.

Second, I ran into a power supply problem. I'm installing this into a PII 450 with a 300 watt powersupply. I already have 3 drives and a cdrom in it, so I was instantly out of power plugs. I ended up pulling over another case and using the powersupply in that case to power the additional drives. When I get a moment I will probably look at getting a 400 watt powersupply with enough power ends to run all the drives.

That's as far as I've gotten ....

Correction, the 2400A can only take four drives ....

So I'm now waiting for it to build 600 gb raid 5 array. It's hard to tell if it's doing anything at all or not. I've tried rebuilding the array a few times just to see if I'm doing something wrong. Anyways, I'll be patient and let it be overnight and see what happens.

Just seen the price of that card - not cheap. :( Might have a look on ebay for something to cannibalize.

Re Array - Can take a while (hours), even on SCSI disks. Are you seeing disk activity?

So I believe I finally just let it go at 3 pm yesterday and it just finished at 10 am my time this morning ... 19 hours to do 3 x 300gb drives in RAID 5 ...

Yeah the cards aren't cheap ...322.00 for the adaptec card ... 300+ per drive, it's not cheap. Fortunetly I don't personally have to pay to play with this stuff :)

MS

I don't either ...... at work. But that just makes me want better hardware at home - my expectations have been raised too high :).

OTOH - a terabyte RAID array, regardless of cost, would keep me going for a good few years.......so it might be worth it.

Is that US$ 322 for the card?

LOL yeah I totally agree. And then I try and reason with my self, what on earth would I do with a 600 gb raid5 array at home. Store my pictures and music?

Yup that's US ...

Right now I'm trying to figure out the wattage per drive, and see if I really need to get a 400 wt powersupply, or just get some power y adapters.

Do you think that 300 wat power suply can handle 6 drives and a cdrom?

MS