On Thu, Dec 24, 2009 at 11:09 AM, Richard Neill <rn214@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > > Jeremy Harris wrote: >> >> On 12/24/2009 05:12 PM, Richard Neill wrote: >>> >>> Of course, with a server machine, it's nearly impossible to use mdadm >>> raid: you are usually compelled to use a hardware raid card. >> >> Could you expand on that? > > Both of the last machines I bought (an IBM X3550 and an HP DL380) come with > hardware raid solutions. These are an utter nuisance because: > > - they can only be configured from the BIOS (or with a > bootable utility CD). Linux has very basic monitoring tools, > but no way to reconfigure the array, or add disks to empty > hot-swap slots while the system is running. > > - If there is a Linux raid config program, it's not part of the > main packaged distro, but usually a pre-built binary, available > for only one release/kernel of the wrong distro. > > - the IBM one had dodgy firmware, which, until updated, caused the > disk to totally fail after a few days. > > - you pay a lot of money for something effectively pointless, and > have less control and less flexibility. > > After my experience with the X3550, I hunted for any server that would ship > without hardware raid, i.e. connect the 8 SATA hotswap slots direct to the > motherboard, or where the hardware raid could be de-activated completely, > and put into pass-through mode. Neither HP nor IBM make such a thing. Yep. And that's why I never order servers from them. There are dozens of reputable white box builders (I use Aberdeen who give me a 5 year all parts warranty and incredible customer service, but there are plenty to choose from) and they build the machine I ask them to build. For hardware RAID I use Areca 1680 series, and they also provide me with machines with software RAID for lighter loads (slave dbs, reporting dbs, and stats dbs) -- Sent via pgsql-performance mailing list (pgsql-performance@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx) To make changes to your subscription: http://www.postgresql.org/mailpref/pgsql-performance
