Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Colocation and Data Centers : need advice on scsi raid controllers

[john2k]

I'm planning to build a server for co-location and am thinking out my hard drive strategy. I'll be using two RAID sets, the secondary being for MySQL databases.

Considering two RAID 1 arrays each having a hot spare or possibly a RAID 1 array for the OS and a RAID 10 array for MySQL (both sets also having a hot spare in this config as well). I'm also thinking about putting each array on its own controller as well...

Looking for advice on which RAID controllers would be best suited for this setup. I've been reading these forums for hours today, but haven't really found the info I'm looking for. Generally it seems that 3ware controllers are most recommended, but I read also that Intel controllers were the best and the same about Areca controllers...

The hard drives I plan to use are the Seagate Cheetah 15k.3... OS will most likely be CentOS 4.1+


I'm looking for best reliability and performance, not for the cheapest. Need to support at least RAID 1. Support for RAID 10 as well would be a plus in case I decide to use that setup.


Any help with this is very much appreciated.

Thanks,

John

[Kiamori]

Do you have a budget for the raid card? They can get quite spendy.

[DoubleD]

Looks like your planning on SCSI, yet all of the controlers you mentioned are PATA or SATA.

For SCSI RAID you should be looking at Adaptec and LSI Logic.

[john2k]

Originally posted by Kiamori
Do you have a budget for the raid card? They can get quite spendy.

Not specifically. I'll know better what I'd like to spend on raid cards soon. At this point, maybe up to $1000 if that's reasonable for one or two quality RAID controllers.

Originally posted by DoubleD
Looks like your planning on SCSI, yet all of the controlers you mentioned are PATA or SATA.

For SCSI RAID you should be looking at Adaptec and LSI Logic.

Correct, I am planning on SCSI. I've seen the 3ware controllers mentioned & recommended so much on WHT that I figured they made SCSI controllers.

Are Adaptec and LSI generally regarded as the best SCSI RAID controllers, performance & reliability wise? I'm going to start looking into those now...

[layer0]

Are Adaptec and LSI generally regarded as the best SCSI RAID controllers, performance & reliability wise? I'm going to start looking into those now...

Adaptec is by no means the best. I would definitely go 3ware instead.

BTW what RAID level are you interested in? Just wondering.

[john2k]

I was considering 3ware controllers but DoubleD pointed out that 3ware does not make SCSI RAID controllers. SCSI RAID controllers are what I'm looking for.

The RAID levels that I'm interested in are either only RAID 1 or both RAID 1 & RAID 10.

As far as I know RAID 10 is a bit better than 0+1, which is why I'm possibly considering RAID 10 as well instead of RAID 01.

[DoubleD]

Originally posted by elix
Adaptec is by no means the best. I would definitely go 3ware instead.

BTW what RAID level are you interested in? Just wondering.

He just stated above and in the first post that he wants SCSI RAID. You will have a hard time doing that with 3Ware considering they don't make a SCSI RAID card.

Adaptec and LSI are probably the largest vendors in this category and they also make most of the rebranded solutions for the big systems vendors like IBM and Dell.

There is also Tekram, but I don't have any experience with those controllers.

3Ware SATA RAID is a good combination of capacity/performance/value, but for enterprise applications, most people are still looking for SCSI solutions.

[Kiamori]

I would stay away from 3ware. If you end up going with sata use http://www.siliconimage.com they are much better.

info you should look at:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/pro...urce=home_menu
http://www.lsilogic.com/products/megaraid/

[john2k]

Thanks for all the helpful info. I'm checking out controllers on the Adaptec site at the moment... guess I should also mention that the server I'm building is going to be 2u rackmount, in case there are certain cards that are not well suited for that.

[Kiamori]

Originally posted by john2k
Thanks for all the helpful info. I'm checking out controllers on the Adaptec site at the moment... guess I should also mention that the server I'm building is going to be 2u rackmount, in case there are certain cards that are not well suited for that.

you may want an onboard solution for a 2u rack

[layer0]

Apologies about that. For SCSI LSI is quite nice from my experience. Adaptec isn't that great as I said.

[john2k]

Originally posted by Kiamori
you may want an onboard solution for a 2u rack

Why? Not enough space in a 2u? Or too much heat or additional power requirement?

[riverpast]

why build when you can buy?

Dell 2850 with built-in PERC 4ei RAID (OEM LSI MegaRAID with 256MB cache) will be the easiest setup.

It probably will be cheaper than build your own server.

[cwl@apaqdigital]

Originally posted by john2k
I'm planning to build a server for co-location and am thinking out my hard drive strategy. I'll be using two RAID sets, the secondary being for MySQL databases.

Considering two RAID 1 arrays each having a hot spare or possibly a RAID 1 array for the OS and a RAID 10 array for MySQL (both sets also having a hot spare in this config as well). I'm also thinking about putting each array on its own controller as well...

you dont really need seperate hot-spare's for each array. as long as you use identical drives for multi RAID sets, you can just use single HDD as 'global' hot-spare which will be available for all RAID sets managed by one single RAID card.

however, if you use more than one SCSI RAID cards (ouch! all that money...), then you do need separate hot-spare for each RAID card.

[john2k]

Originally posted by riverpast
why build when you can buy?

Dell 2850 with built-in PERC 4ei RAID (OEM LSI MegaRAID with 256MB cache) will be the easiest setup.

It probably will be cheaper than build your own server.

I'm going to build a dual opteron system... so that pretty much takes Dell out of the equation as far as I know.

Anyhow, I generally feel that when you want a top notch machine it's best to build your own so you get the performance that you want and where you need it most.