[mythtv-users] RocketRAID Cards, was: OT: help selecting drives for server

Brian Wood beww at beww.org
Wed May 20 22:33:48 UTC 2009


On Wednesday 20 May 2009 16:00:37 Steven Adeff wrote:
> On Wed, May 20, 2009 at 2:04 PM, Brent Norris <brent at brentnorris.net> wrote:
> > Brian Wood wrote:
> >> On Wednesday 20 May 2009 07:32:00 Jon Bishop wrote:
> >>> On May 18, 2009, at 6:18 PM, Nasa wrote:
> >>>>> 8-port cards are either PCI-X or PCIExpress for that reason.
> >>>>
> >>>> It's a HighPoint Technologies, RocketRaid 2320
> >>>
> >>> I believe that with those HighPoint cards, you can use them as
> >>> controller cards without using the RAID function. I know it was true
> >>> of my RocketRaid IDE raid cards.
> >>
> >> Yes, that's what I was doing. It worked, but it could not use the latest
> >> modes. It was a little strange, Linux saw the drives, but as sde, sdg,
> >> sdi and sdk, instead of a,b,c,d. Not really a problem, just odd.
> >>
> >> There is apparently an open source driver to use the RAID functions of
> >> the card, I never played with that.
> >>
> >> But since I had a 133Mhz. PCI-X slot, I wanted to get a 64-bit card for
> >> better performance. If you are using 32-bit slots, the RocketRaid is an
> >> option if you already have one, but I wouldn't buy one specifically for
> >> Linux, since software RAID works just as well or better with a cheaper
> >> card.
> >>
> >> Of course the OSS driver may work better than software RAID, but I don't
> >> know about that. Personally I doubt it, but I have no data to back up
> >> that opinion.
> >
> >  It sounds like it is actually a FakeRAID card.  If that is the case you
> > are probably better off using the Software RAID functions of Linux.  *In
> > my experience*
> >
> > Brent
>
> too bad you still have to pay for all the fake raid chips. Which is
> why that Supermicro PCI card is so popular. Too bad there is no PCIx
> version of it.

I understand they are working on a PCIExpress version. A lot of servers don't 
have PCI-X anymore, but have PCIExpress instead.

What a stupid collection of names, PCI, PCI-X and PCIExpress. It reminds me of 
the extended/expanded RAM in old DOS machines, another case of very 
unfortunate (or intentional) similar-sounding names for very different 
things.

Aren't the fake raid functions of most mobos just the regular SATA controllers 
with a little bit of BIOS setup storage to store the parameters of the 
arrays? I thought the rest was all done with the (Windows) software drivers.

I don't think there's any specific chip on a mobo for fake RAID, though it 
might add just a bit of complication to the SATA controller chip and the BIOS 
setup S/W.

-- 
beww
beww at beww.org


More information about the mythtv-users mailing list