Michael S. Peek wrote:
SNIP
So I'm not a complete loon? Excellent. At least that makes me feel
better.
Like I said, in the past I've used 3ware, but on the last build I did
I couldn't get the monitoring software to run. The command-line tool
worked fine, but the monitor would segfault. So I wound up kludging
it by having a cron job call a script that would run the command line
tool, feed it the commands necessary to check the status of the RAID,
and then check the output for any string that looked like an error.
It works great for a kludge, but that's to say that it's not elegant
by a long shot. (For instance, it doesn't know the difference between
not OK and "VERIFYING", so once a week I get 99 emails that say, "An
error was found: VERIFYING 1%", 2%, 3%, ...)
It looks as though the new player on the block is Areca, which seems
to be highly recommended in the reviews I've read, and it has driver
support in the linux kernel out of the box. But I can't find the
program (or is it kernel module?) for the http interface -- arechttp I
think it's called.
What else is out there for HW RAID, and how easy is it to use w/ a
stock kernel?
Michael
Michael,
The only hardware raid controller I have experience with is Dell PERC
controllers which is IIRC an Adaptec chipset. These PERCs do not
interact with the kernel, rather they interact with the built in server
monitor hardware. You might get messages in /var/log/messages about
/dev/sdX if a HD fails, you might not. The actual hardware is masked
from the OS by the server hardware, bios and PERC controllers. If an
error happens the "Dell" logo would go amber then you run diags or Dell
monitoring software (called OpenManage) to tell you what the fault is.
So, I just don't know what monitoring software is out there to do your
job. I believe HP and IBM also has similar hardware solutions "built
in" to the servers combined with custom software monitoring tools. I
have to bow to someone else's knowledge and learn with you about "white
boxes" hardware raid.
And no, you are not a loon! :) I just did not understand the basis for
your RAID question and thought I would pass on my former customers
experience and preferences.
However, if 3ware can be used as just a controller (or you just make
single HD volumes) you might still make mdadm work for you with the
built in mdadm monitoring tools (that is essentially what my customers
did). IE: 24 scsi HDs set up as 24 RAID-0 seen by the OS as 24 sd's.
mdadm then is used to make raid-X out of those. mdadm can then tell you
if sda has failed or not. I don't know if this is feasible for you, but
I offer it up as the only solution I do know about outside of Dell hardware.
HTH
Damon L. Chesser
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