Very Computer

 Ok.  I have been browsing thru searches on Deja among other places on
IDE RAID on Linux.  I am a little confused, at the moment.  The
following is what I think I understand about this, please feel free to
correct me as needed, and please also provide references if applicable.

1)  IDE RAID cards like the Promise FastTrak 100 are software driven,
and not natively supported by the default Linux IDE driver.  There are
patches available, but the overall process is non-trivial, for someone
whose only compiling experience is the Linux kernel (and not even that
for a year or so :( ).

2)  Software RAID under Linux can rival or beat low-end hardware-based
RAID, provided you keep to one drive per IDE channel.  The software
RAID implentation is a bit easier to accomplish than the modifications
mentioned in 1).  Plus it gives more RAID options than most low-end
i.e. affordable hardware options.

So my (next) question is: If the FastTrak100 costs ~$100, and an ATA100
controller card (non-RAID) costs ~$40, and the drives costs the same,
is there any benefit of using a FastTrak100 vs a standard ATA100 card
if everything has to be implemented via software anyway?

I apologize if this post sounds weird.  After sifting thru a bunch of
threads, none of which seemed to directly touch on this, the above is
what I came away with.  I'm mainly looking for confirmation, or
corrections, to reassure me that I'm headed down the right path.

TIA,

Monte

--
There are basically three kinds of men.  There
are the ones who learn by reading.  Then there are
the few who learn by observation.  The rest just
have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

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Before you buy.

milanuk schrieb:

Quote:>  Ok.  I have been browsing thru searches on Deja among other places on
> IDE RAID on Linux.  I am a little confused, at the moment.  The
> following is what I think I understand about this, please feel free to
> correct me as needed, and please also provide references if applicable.

> 1)  IDE RAID cards like the Promise FastTrak 100 are software driven,
> and not natively supported by the default Linux IDE driver.  There are
> patches available, but the overall process is non-trivial, for someone
> whose only compiling experience is the Linux kernel (and not even that
> for a year or so :( ).

> 2)  Software RAID under Linux can rival or beat low-end hardware-based
> RAID, provided you keep to one drive per IDE channel.  The software
> RAID implentation is a bit easier to accomplish than the modifications
> mentioned in 1).  Plus it gives more RAID options than most low-end
> i.e. affordable hardware options.

> So my (next) question is: If the FastTrak100 costs ~$100, and an ATA100
> controller card (non-RAID) costs ~$40, and the drives costs the same,
> is there any benefit of using a FastTrak100 vs a standard ATA100 card
> if everything has to be implemented via software anyway?

> I apologize if this post sounds weird.  After sifting thru a bunch of
> threads, none of which seemed to directly touch on this, the above is
> what I came away with.  I'm mainly looking for confirmation, or
> corrections, to reassure me that I'm headed down the right path.

> TIA,

> Monte

> --
> There are basically three kinds of men.  There
> are the ones who learn by reading.  Then there are
> the few who learn by observation.  The rest just
> have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

> Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
> Before you buy.

You are absolutely right in 1) and 2).

To your question: it depends!
if the linux system is a heavy loaded file server, a hardware RAID IDE card
my be better since the CPU and the system bus are not so high loaded and
have more resources for other things. Nevertheless, it is not faster than a
linux software RAID!

If you are just looking for a cheap RAID 0 or 1 solution for your SOHO
data, i.e., some sort of data safety, a software RAID within Linux is the
better and cheaper solution - IMHO.

Have fun

Volker

Quote:

> You are absolutely right in 1) and 2).

Good!  Thank you!

Quote:> To your question: it depends!
> if the linux system is a heavy loaded file server, a hardware RAID
IDE card
> my be better since the CPU and the system bus are not so high loaded
and
> have more resources for other things. Nevertheless, it is not faster
than a
> linux software RAID!

> If you are just looking for a cheap RAID 0 or 1 solution for your SOHO
> data, i.e., some sort of data safety, a software RAID within Linux is
the
> better and cheaper solution - IMHO.

That is pretty much what I am looking at... a tape drive for equivalent
capacity to what I could set up a software RAID array w/ a few large
capacity fast ATA100 drives is way, way, WAY out of feasible price
range for me.  I still may get a small(er) used tape drive to back up
some other things for longer term storage, but for the meantime, any
backup is better than none.

Thanks for the confirmation.

Monte

Quote:> Have fun

> Volker

--
There are basically three kinds of men.  There
are the ones who learn by reading.  Then there are
the few who learn by observation.  The rest just
have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.

Arco makes an IDE RAID controller that is strictly hardware based.  It
does not require any device drivers or IRQ's.  It connects directly to
the IDE controller on the motherboard.

Visit www.duplidisk.com or (800) 458-1666.

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Before you buy.

So, does anyone else out there on the list have any experience good or
bad w/ these controllers?

Monte

--
There are basically three kinds of men.  There
are the ones who learn by reading.  Then there are
the few who learn by observation.  The rest just
have to pee on the electric fence for themselves.

Sent via Deja.com http://www.deja.com/
Before you buy.