[mythtv-users] Question re: available SATA ports and linux software RAID

[Kevon]

On 04/07/2011 08:49 AM, Mark Lord wrote:
> On 11-04-07 01:06 AM, Bobby Gill wrote:
> ..
>> (I was considering the HighPoint 2300 PCIe controller card but after
>> communicating with their web support, they confirmed to me that multiple
>> controller cards of theirs (any?) cannot be used in conjunction to form an array
>> (one card = 4 slots so I couldn't buy 2 cards and build an 8 drive array on the
>> same mobo).)
> 
> 
> Their telephone support folks are mostly unaware of "software RAID",
> they they were really thinking "Highpoint hardware-assisted RAID" there.
> 
> However, I would not get a "RAID" card, and especially not a "HighPoint" RAID.
> 
> The problem with HighPoint in particular, is that their BIOSs have a nasty habit
> of corrupting data on "JBOD" ("non RAID") drives.  The BIOS writes a "metadata"
> block to any drive it detects at boot time, without regard to whatever data
> or filesystem might already be on the sectors it overwrites.  Duh..
> 
> If you have the slots, then get a few 4-port SiliconImage cards from DealExtreme.
> Otherwise tread very carefully with the HighPoint cards, and heed the metadata
> warnings.  Here is the text I put into my sata_mv kernel driver as a reminder:
> 
> /*
>  * Highpoint RocketRAID PCIe 23xx series cards:
>  *
>  * Unconfigured drives are treated as "Legacy"
>  * by the BIOS, and it overwrites sector 8 with
>  * a "Lgcy" metadata block prior to Linux boot.
>  *
>  * Configured drives (RAID or JBOD) leave sector 8
>  * alone, but instead overwrite a high numbered
>  * sector for the RAID metadata.  This sector can
>  * be determined exactly, by truncating the physical
>  * drive capacity to a nice even GB value.
>  *
>  * RAID metadata is at: (dev->n_sectors & ~0xfffff)
>  *
>  * Warn the user, lest they think we're just buggy.
>  */
> 
> I suspect that all of the "HighPoint" brand cards do something similar.
> 
> Cheers
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> 
+1 for staying away from HighPoint cards. I have a RocketRaid 2320 and
it was a bitch to setup. See my post below on how to get around
HighPoint's fake JBOD setup.
http://www.mythtv.org/pipermail/mythtv-users/2011-March/311656.html

The supplied driver from HighPoint is is not compatible with 2.6.37
kernel due to a change in queuecommand not requiring scsi locks. This
will cause your OS to crash hard on boot. See the blog below from a user
who enlighten me about the issue. Patch also included. All communication
to HighPoint have gone unanswered.
http://blog.nielshorn.net/2011/03/vhba-and-rocketraid-2320-rr232x-modules-with-kernel-2-6-37-x/

I am also shopping around for a 8 port SATA adaptor. I have settled on a
card with the LSI SAS2008 chipset due to >3TB drive support. The Intel
card recommended uses the LSI SAS1068E chipset and does not support >3TB
drives. If you decided to expand your array with these drives shop
around on ebay for LSI 9240, IBM M1015 or Intel RS2WC080. These three
cards are identical, however the IBM card runs a cripple firmware with
RAID5/50 disable (which you won't need anyway) and is available for a
lot cheaper that the other two. Lots of unused, freshly pulled cards
available. One warning, LSI cards can be picky with motherboards.