[ale] Onboard RAID

[Michael B. Trausch]

On 11/16/2011 04:12 PM, Brian Mathis wrote:
> There is a world of difference between "hardware" BIOS RAID and a real
> RAID card like a PERC H700.  Please do not throw both of those things
> in the same category.

Nobody is doing that.

> Given the choice between software RAID and BIOS
> RAID, software RAID is the only real choice.  However, a real RAID
> card will almost always be the best option, if you have one available.

This is patently false, unless you have knowledge of resources that I do
not.

Hardware RAID is great---until you no longer have the ability to replace
the controller with an exactly identical one.  And then you have to rely
on luck.

> I haven't used Windows software RAID recently, but I think it will be
> difficult to get a RAID10 working since the drivers required for
> accessing the striped data are themselves striped across the disks,
> rendering them unreadable to the system as it boots.  Windows may use
> a separate boot partition that is not striped to get around this
> issue, but you will have to research that (and I'm not sure a Linux
> user group mailing list is the place to find the best answer).  I'm
> sure you could test it out in a VM.

I am pretty sure that Windows supports both RAID 0 and RAID 1.  Just
stack them in the appropriate order.  But I haven't tried it.  If it
doesn't support those things, then what the heck is it worth anyway?

At least, that's how I feel about it.

> As for Windows being completely, horribly sucky sucky, please cut it
> out.  A very large portion of the world uses Windows for rather large
> file storage on a daily basis, and they don't all constantly crash and
> burn.  It may not be your preference, so leave it at that.  Linux has
> its own share of problems.

I administer both Windows and Linux systems for a living.

The Windows boxes are the only ones that constantly need my attention.
The Linux boxes are more or less fully automated; I log into each of
them once per week using an automatic tool and patch the systems.

Just for a single one of my clients, in the last week I have had to
spend more than 10 hours working on problems that simply wouldn't exist
if Windows weren't in use (or if the stupid person that setup the
Windows box hadn't made stupid decisions).

If you're going to compare Windows Server and, say, Ubuntu Server,
you'll find that Ubuntu Server wins pretty much all over the place.  And
it isn't even the best (IMHO) option out there.  I'm partial to Debian
for servers, myself.  But I honestly don't care what's running on a
server as long as it is running well.

Also, my experiences have typically been that given a set of
requirements and a set of hardware, the solution can almost always be
more efficiently implemented with Linux on the server.  With the very
real security and costs problems that Windows presents, it (again, IMHO)
has no place on a server.  Just because "a very large portion of the
world uses Widnows for rather large file storage on a daily basis"
doesn't mean squat, other than perhaps that there are a lot of very
stupid people out there placing a lot of trust in a very historically
weak and insecure system.  (And every month, that history simply grows
longer.)

I'll have rational conversation about Windows all day long, but it
sounds to me like you're either a fanatic or a fan boi, and if that's
the case, then we haven't anything to discuss.

> Finally, why do they include BIOS RAID on systems?  Mainly to have a
> feature to list on the package.  Incidentally, I don't think I would
> buy a board for enterprise usage that has such a feature.  Those are
> typically aimed at the enthusiast market.

It's safe to just ignore it.

> P.S. Please pay attention to whether the replies you receive are top
> or bottom posted and use the same method to continue the conversation.
>  I'm not one to care, as long as you are consistent within the same
> thread.

You should take your own advice:

  http://news.gmane.org/gmane.org.user-groups.ale

Idiot.

	--- Mike

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