On 07/10/2017 12:14 PM, John Andersen wrote:
And not something you really have to be concerned with any more. When we were doing raid arrays on a 386, sure.
But unless you are paying BIG bucks for a raid controller, software raid will outperform hardware raid.
The irony is that even if you did want a real-world hardware RAID card (a few years old), you can pick of incredible deals for under $15 bucks on e-bay. (they are usually without the battery itself) I'm talking full-fledged 8-port SATA II/SAS controllers with 512M of onboard RAM that were the commercial darlings 5 years ago or so like the LSI Megaraid 8888ELP, etc.. Hell, they even come with graphical RAID setup tools in the onboard BIOS. You can't even buy cheap throwaway controllers cards for that. Now, you can get the SATA III/SAS versions in the $40-80 range. If you need RAID or simply controller expansions for a backup project and want some older enterprise level SATA (and importantly SAS) gear that is -- granted slightly older and slower than top-of-the-line gear today -- but bulletproof at a trivial price, they are worth checking for. I've used them without issue when I wanted to turn a pci-slot into 8 more drives... and I keep them handy in the event I have an onboard controller failure (which I inexplicably experienced a year ago on my office server) That said, I still prefer, and use, Linux software raid. Even though with a hardware card, you are not tied to a specific server hardware RAID format, it's just adds another layer of complexity that I've never needed the benefit of. Just something to keep in your hip pocket. Today you can probably find the high-end SATA III/SAS cards readily available. Overseas shops make a living out of pulling and reselling this type gear from retired servers, etc.. I was amazed to see what was available. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org To contact the owner, e-mail: opensuse+owner@opensuse.org