SLOX 4.1 Raid Setup
 

Hello all

I am required to setup a mail server using SuSE Linux Open Exchange Server 4.1 running on a HW SATA-raid controller in raid 1.
My issue is to find a good recommended HW raid controller for a SLOX 4.1 server.

I have read trough alot of posts regarding this on this forum, however none have fully answered my conserns listed below.

I know about the Adaptec 2410sa controller and have seen good reviews of this product. However in the documentation of the controller it states that it is not supported as a bootable device under SuSE linux specifically.
Is it not possibly to install it on a 3rd IDE HD and get the raid controller running, then copy the setup to the raid setup and and write to the MBR?

Here the price is the issue and I am aware of the 3ware controllers but those are not our first choice due to the price of their products.

I am rather new at Linux and it is my first time doing anything regarding raid controllers on Linux.

Any help is highly appriciated.

Buy a 3ware card. It is hardware RAID and kernel native.

http://www.3ware.com/

We are looking for good alternatives to those products.
We where also send to the knowledgebase of SuSE however at their (In german) hardware compatible list, only very few raid controllers are officially listed and 3ware is not among those.
http://cdb.suse.de/
I have not been able of finding similary sites in english.

But yes the general word on the street is 3ware :)

Look in the Linux Kernel itself. "make xconfig" The 3ware RAID card's are native in all linux kernels. I bought about 10 of these cards myself, and they are worth their weight in gold for PATA/SATA RAID. You don't have to do anything. They just work. The choice is yours.

We are then considering the 3ware 8006-2LP as we only need raid 1 and have a relative low userbase for the mail system (About 100 users).

So what your saying is that I can put in the card, boot up the installation CD with SLOX 4.1, specify the drivers if needed, it finds the HDs and see them as 1 disk only? no need to setup anything? :) SLOX 4.1 is kernel 2.4.19

Sorry for the questions but I have to be 100% sure.

You don't need to specify the drivers. It is already in the kernel.

You just set the RAID in the RAID BIOS and linux will see it. It is real hardware RAID.

You should also buy enterprise rated IDE drives so you don't have to mess with it for the next 5 years. Maxtor Maxline III or Western Digital RAID Edition or Raptor lines are a good investment.

We are planning to use 2 SATA disks only with the system.
We are currently planning to use:
Hitachi harddrives
2 x HDS722580VLSA80
thos are quite cheat but should run ok for years, yes?

You mean enterprise SATA drives, yes?

If you aren't getting a 4 port SATA array, I would suggest not pissing off your users and getting a 10,000 RPM drive that won't fail in a year.

The IBM Deathstar will fail under a 100 user load after getting pounded on for a year. I have an 8 drive IDE array with 120 GB regular drives, and the cheap drives do not last when heavily used. It is not as heavily used as an Email server.

Email is a critical business process these days. Don't take it lightly unless you want to be stabbed in the face by your fellow employees.

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...65&Language=en

or

http://www.westerndigital.com/en/pro...87&Language=en

or my favorite for large fileserver

http://www.maxtor.com/portal/site/Ma...Specifications

I have some 500 GB to Terabyte fileservers and they aren't hit as much as yours will be. I would highly recommend you get a 4 port 9500S card with 10,000 RPM drives and put it in a RAID 10 configuration. That would be ideal and give you the hardware to handle the hits.

If you are just slapping together a piecemeal solution and just want redundancy on a PC, then the 2 drive desktop card is appropriate. But, I have to tell you that I think it isn't appropriate as an email server.

We are going with the "cheap" 2 regular disk solution, as my boss claims it is save enough, and that it is ok to replace a regular HD a few times every year.

I thank you very much for your very accurate and well written answers to my issue :)

Sure man, good luck. Wiederholen Sie.

Actually I have one more issue

When I look at the OSes supported

SuSE 8.1 is not listed on the 3ware site...
However you would still claim that it is directly supported?

http://www.3ware.com/support/OS-support.asp

2.4.19 is on the cusp of SATA support in Linux. PATA is supported more maturely, of course. SATA did not exist when 2.4 was first being developed, but got patched at 2.4.19. It wasn't declared stable until 2.4.29 though.

There is a driver for you if it is an issue:
http://www.3ware.com/support/download_7.7.1.asp?SNO=358

But that's not what you want.

Get the 7006-2 and regular PATA IDE drives if you want a guarantee- and cheaper price.

Or call Suse's support line and ask them if 3ware's SATA is supported and stable. It costs enough for the product. I'm sure they can help. But since your boss is balking on buying hard drives, I can guess where you got the OS.

My suggestion, let your boss try to set it up and you run the company.


CONFIG_BLK_DEV_3W_XXXX_RAID:

3ware is the only hardware ATA-Raid product in Linux to date.
This card is 2,4, or 8 channel master mode support only.
SCSI support required!!!

<http://www.3ware.com/>

Please read the comments at the top of
drivers/scsi/3w-xxxx.c.

Im not sure you got the whole link as I cant find the path to the c file you specified

The SuSE support phone lines happens to only support their desktop version.
They have an e-mail support of which I have now waited for more than one week for reply hence my attempt at getting some answered on this forum :)

Regarding the kernel versions:

I suppose it would be possibly as I read of the 3ware site to install with kernel 2.4.19 and afterward update to kernel 2.4.29+ for stability?

I explained the issues regarding the unstable support by the 2.4.19 kernel to my boss.

He now want me to examine the possibilities in buying a SCSI raid controller and the supportability by linux of such.
Would you recommend 3ware as well?