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Re: [OCLUG-Tech] Motherboards for software raid with sata

  • Subject: Re: [OCLUG-Tech] Motherboards for software raid with sata
  • From: "Alex @ Avantel Systems" <ahv [ at ] avantel [ dot ] ca>
  • Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2007 09:02:19 -0400
On Tuesday 24 April 2007 21:56, you wrote:
> * ahv [ at ] avantel [ dot ] ca <ahv [ at ] avantel [ dot ] ca> [070424 11:24]:
> > It may have been a fluke but my purchase of an Asus A8N-VM MB has
> > not worked our for using software raid with sata drives.  The
> > on-board raid has been disabled and the sata_nv driver detects the
> > drives OK but writing fails during install. Google tells me it's a
> > "known problem".
> >
> > Does anyone have an example of a locally (ottawa) purchased MB
> > (almost everyone sells Asus)that worked OK for sata drives and
> > software raid (I'm using Centos 4.4) It's needed for a light duty
> > web/mail/SQL server.

To all who discussed HW vs SW raid - my choice is SW raid to keep cost down.  
IF someone has a *working* HW raid configuration I would be interested in 
which RAID board you used and if you needed any special drivers. . . 
>
> Strangely enough I have this same motherboard (at least the A8N part)
> and have 8 SATA drives connected to it (4 on board and 4 on 2 additional
> PCI controllers) all in software raid (2 sets of RAID0 over RAID1).

Apparently there are different flavours of the A8N boards and the original VM 
board (that I have) had problems with the chipset not working with the 
sata_nv drivers.  Since it was an nvidea/nforce problem, nobody was 
interested in "fixing" the drivers to accommodate the problem - 
understandable! At least that's my understanding based on a endless googling
>
> So what specifically is the problem here?  Is this a Centos problem?

Not AFAIK.  What I don't know is when this problem got fixed so if you have an 
A8N board that works - let me know which one, please! 

>
> Now, I've had issues on some historical kernels with SMP (dual core) and
> nv drivers.  However, with UP kernels it's been rock solid, on this and
> other motherboards.  For me it wasn't even software raid related, just
> any high traffic going through the southbridge (like gigabit networking,
> or DRM enabled in X).  Everything is working in 2.6.20.7.
>
> Can you try running with noapic noacpi -- they are both kernel options,
> you pass them through grub or lilo.  I don't remember which actually
> helps in this situation, but one of them does and the other is not
> harmful.

Tried that - no joy.
>
> I don't know what Centos 4.4 is, but it sounds like a RHEL4 clone.

Right - but without the support price thrown in.  Other than that it's RHEL 
from people making a point about OSS

> That's running 2.6.9 if my memory serves me right.  That's a really old
> kernel.

Yeah, I'm not looking for (b)leading edge - I have other boxes for that :).  
I'll go with Centos 5 at some point but it needs time to settle down.  

What would you use for a "production" server?

Cheers;
>

Alex
====
> -Bart
>
> --
> 				WebSig: http://www.jukie.net/~bart/sig/

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