Raid Controller Suggestions

[miket]

Hi !

For a desktop machine why not use software RAID ?
To be honest on such a machine you won't notice the difference, if it were a server serving 100+ clients then you would see the benefit
of hardware RAID, but for a desktop machine stick with software RAID!
The other plus is that it is compatible with many other Linux distro's so you won't be tied !

Install mdadm +LVM2 and you will be away.

The only problem is that Mint *still* doesn't support installing onto MD/RAID devices *nor* LVM which is a *HUGE* drawback!!!
(I hope Clem/Husse read this as Mint is starting to fall behind in basic functionality IMO!)

I too only use multi-disk machines using RAID+LVM and have had to drop Mint for this very reason!
Ubuntu support RAID/LVM installs using their alternative install disk, no reason Mint can't do the same

MikeT.

I have just built a pretty good computer that works great in Linux Mint with pretty much no extra setup effort.
One problem I am having is with the on board ICH10 Raid. It doesn't seem to be recognized by default in Linux Mint and after reading up on it I realize it's just FakeRaid which I do not want. So I am looking for a raid controller that can handle 4 or 6 (preffered) hard drives.
I plan on dual booting so it needs to be friendly with both Linux Mint and Windows 7. I also am looking for something quick and easy to setup. I currently work a lot so I have more money than time.
One concern I have with Raid in general is that it seems the way it writes data to the drives is proprietary so upgrading raid controllers is difficult. Does anyone have any ideas to mitigate this problem in the early stage while I am buying a raid controller.

The models I am currently focusing on are:
3ware 9650SE-4LPML
areca ARC-1110
3ware 9550SXU-8LP

If anyone has any experience or comments on those models or knows of any other good models please let me know.

Thanks in advance for any help.

[Husse]

Hi mike
Nice to see you
The RAID problem is inherited from Ubuntu, but Clem does not seem all that interested in it
I'll have to take it up with him (he never reads the forum any more - no time, I'm his eyes )
LVM is still unsolved but there are two good tutorials for mdraid and dmraid in the how to section
On a side note - could you please make a couple of forum searches for vpn and vnc and my user name
I have some half answered posts in that field

[miket]

Hi Husse!

I try and drop by when time permits
Not sure what the problem is that is inherited from ubuntu as they support installing onto RAID/LVM base systems ?
We just need an "Alternative" install version of Mint, like Ubuntu have, to allow this to happen.

With more and more machines coming pre-installed with more than 1 drive more and more people are going to want the operating system
mirrored across drives to keep the system protected during disk failure, even windows can do this today!

I think if this basic functionality is not added to Mint soon then it will seriously fall behind, it's all very well looking pretty and
having fancy menus and app's but if the basic underlying functionality isn't there then people will use another distro to get what they
need, surely it can't be that hard for it to be included in mint especially since Ubuntu already have the options available and Mint
is just Ubuntu + Mint packages

I'll search for the other postings now ...

Cheers!

MikeT.

Hi mike
Nice to see you
The RAID problem is inherited from Ubuntu, but Clem does not seem all that interested in it
I'll have to take it up with him (he never reads the forum any more - no time, I'm his eyes )
LVM is still unsolved but there are two good tutorials for mdraid and dmraid in the how to section
On a side note - could you please make a couple of forum searches for vpn and vnc and my user name
I have some half answered posts in that field

[Husse]

Someone posted a description of how to get hardware RAID 5 in Mint
You need one drive outside the RAID to start the boot (you could say a separate boot hard disk not boot partition)
I can't find the post now but it's either in hardware or tutorials
As long as there is support in the kernel it should be possible - it's more or less a kernel only thing
I wrote inherited from Ubuntu above - sloppy me
It is inherited in as much as you can't do it from the live CD - need an alternate install and our resources are stretched to the limit as it is already

[miket]

Hi !

The solution I have used in the past to get Mint/Other OS onto a Hardware RAID based storage solution is to use this type of device :

http://www.ccidistribution.co.uk/upload ... pple_oct09

It's pretty much invisible to the OS and appears as a normal drive as far as Mint is concerned.

Also remember that currently there is no true Upgrade process for Mint and thus it will require a complete install each time
to move up to the next version, this will be a major headache as the hardware RAID support will most probably not be there at install time.

I personally wouldn't recommend trying to use an internal RAID controller with Mint as support is flakey at best.

MikeT.

Thanks for your responses.

I would love to see good raid support in Mint. I am pretty confident that what ever controller I get will work with Ubuntu, but Mint is my first choice distro.

I am not really interested in using software raid, ICH10 is pretty much just that.
For one I would like to dual boot with all partitions raided and accessible by both systems. I don't know if that will work well or be easy to do with Windows 7 and Linux Mint.
I would also like to use Raid 5 which can be taxing on the processor and I do have software that I use/write that pushes the system already.

Does anyone have any experience with raid controllers and Mint?
If so, what was the process of setting it up like and what controller did you use?

BTW, all of the controllers I mentioned claim to have default support in the kernel. So based on that does anyone foresee any problems from doing just a basic install of Mint.