Hi folks,
I have just installed a PCI SATA controller based on the SIL3112A
chipset into my Centos-3 (latest kernel patches applied) system and
moved an existing (not the boot disk) SATA drive from the onboard
controller to the SIL-based one so I can setup software RAID with two
300GB drives. Kudzu/Linux found the controller and drives straight away
and they've appeared as 'hda' and 'hdc'.
I've managed to partition hdc (hda was already setup) and format it -
this was VERY slow and 'top' showed a significant amount of interrupt
time. A bit of Googling found the right command to enable DMA (hdparm
-X66 -d1 /dev/hda etc.) and this seems to have cured that problem!
While Googling I found a LOT of info on the SIL controller and Linux but
it was all for various kernels and linux versions - can anyone steer me
in the right direction for info on this setup with RHEL3/Centos -
specifically:
1) Should I just use the native SATA drivers like I'm doing now or are
there better ones to use?
2) Are there any drivers that will use the BIOS-based software RAID or
is using the Linux software RAID the way to go?
3) Tweaks and recommendations for the setup would be appreciated.
The system is going to be used as a backup server for bacula with
various clients dumping data via 512K broadband and so the performance
of the RAID system does not need to be blazingly fast - hence the I'm
seeing if the cheap (?14!) controller is Ok for the job before trying
anything else.
Any info or pointers appreciated.
Thanks
Nigel Kendrick
