A couple of years ago, I was managing 2 systems. Both were built with Supermicro motherboards and chassis and high-end 3ware controllers (9550sx if I recall correctly). One system was built with enterprise-class SATA drives, while the other was built with desktop-class SATA drives. They were both configured for RAID5. The system with desktop-class drives occasionally kicked a drive out of the array. The controller would report that the drive had failed and then that it was back again a few seconds later, but this was enough for the controller to kick it out of the array and require a rebuild. Caution: one anecdote is not hard data! Simon On Wed, Mar 17, 2010 at 7:36 AM, Matt Garman <matthew.garman@xxxxxxxxx> wrote: > > Hello, > > For building a Linux md system with many disks, I've been looking at > the LSI SAS 3081E-R controller card[1] with the SuperMicro > 846TQ-R900B chassis[2]. The SAS3018E card looks like it has a > mature open-source Linux driver. The chassis has a SAS expander; > I'm not sure which one (but I have a question in to SuperMicro). > > Anyway, my question is this: has anyone used this setup, or one > like it (sas controller + sas expander) with "desktop" class drives? > The web research I've done suggests that most SAS controllers and > expanders are targeted at the enterprise market, and therefore, > aren't guaranteed to work with the (significantly cheaper) desktop > drives. > > For example, from the FAQ for that SuperMicro chassis[3]: > > Question: We want to use the new Seagate 1.5TB ST31500341AS > drives in combination with a storage solution based on your > 846TQ chassis, is this compatible? > > Answer: This ST31500341AS hard drive is designed to be a Desktop > type hard drive, not an Enterprise hard drive which is needed in > this setup. We don't recommend this combination, so please use > the Seagate 1TB ST31000340NS drive instead. This drive is an > Enterprise drive and validated for our 846TQ chassis. > > In short, we want to build a server with 24 drives. The desktop > drives are significantly cheaper than the enterprise drives. But > getting 24 ports is cheapest with these SAS controllers + expanders. > > Thanks, > Matt > > > [1] http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/products_home/host_bus_adapters/sas_hbas/lsisas3081er/index.html > > [2] http://www.supermicro.com/products/chassis/4U/846/SC846TQ-R900.cfm > > [3] http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=8230 > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in > the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx > More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html > -- To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
