Re: [CentOS] SATA RAID Cards

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WipeOut wrote:

Which SATA RAID cards work natively on Centos 4.x??

I have heard that the only one supported is the 3ware cards but not sure if that requires a driver to be added or if it just works out the box.. Also would like to know of alternatives..

I am running a 3ware 9500S-12 card in our backup-to-disk server, and while it does work out of the box with CentOS4 the driver complains of strange errors. I have chosen to use the official downloaded driver package from the 3ware website; the resulting .ko is much larger in size, so I assume there's a lot more goodies in there. (mini HowTo below)

The throughput numbers aren't the best (I'm running two RAID5 hardware configs, one of 6x 250gig, one of 6x 400gig) but the tools 3ware provides are top notch! There's a commandline tool tw_cli that allows full control of the card (including battery backup) and they even have a webUI tool that is very, very nice. Free downloads, and you can even upgrade your firmware from the cmdline in CentOS.

I couldn't be happier with the product, I don't need insane write speed for this machine.

-te

===

[My mini howto, more of notes-to-self]

A kernel upgrade requires recompiling the module for the new kernel and making a new initrd file.

Example: new kernel version 2.6.9-34ELsmp

1) backup RPM module:
   cd /usr/src/
   mkdir 2.6.9-34ELsmp
cp -a /lib/modules/2.6.9-34ELsmp/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko 2.6.9-34ELsmp/

2) change dev link so new compile uses the new kernel, while still
running the old kernel (see 3ware Makefile):
   cd /usr/src/
   rm -f linux
   ln -s /lib/modules/2.6.9-34ELsmp/source linux

3) compile new module
   cd /usr/src/3ware/<version> (i.e. /2.26.04.007/)
   make clean
   make
   chmod 0755 3w-9xxx.ko

4) copy new module over stock RPM one and depmod
cp -a 3w-9xxx.ko /lib/modules/2.6.9-34ELsmp/kernel/drivers/scsi/3w-9xxx.ko
   depmod -a 2.6.9-34ELsmp

5) backup original initrd, make new one with new module
   cd /boot/
   cp -a initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img.orig
   mkinitrd initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img.new 2.6.9-34ELsmp
   (ls -l to see that new initrd is slightly larger now, safety check)
   mv initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img.new initrd-2.6.9-34ELsmp.img

6) reboot


--
Troy Engel | Systems Engineer
Fluid Inc. | http://www.fluid.com
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