3WARE Support

[drchips]

I would like to use a 3Ware card (24 port on pcie).

 

I intend using it thus:

 

PARITY - 4 disks RAID-10

15 disks for data

CACHE - 4 disks RAID-10

1 disk as hot spare (or warm spare even)

 

Late model 3Ware cards support OCE so upgrading of PARITY or CACHE RAID Volumes would not be difficult.

 

A perfect blend of unRAID functionality and 3Ware control.

 

I am a PRO licence user but freely admit I know zip about LINUX.

 

How difficult would it be to integrate any 3Ware drivers required to enable this?

 

drchips.

[WeeboTech]

For a seasoned admin, this would not be too difficult, for noobie, it will take a while.

 

You need a development slackware system,

The kernel source.

The updates from Tom to the kernel.

The Drivers from 3ware.

 

The kernel will then need to be compiled in with all the drivers.

 

You will need to unpack the bzroot.

install the modules there

repack bzroot

 

Then place the bzimage (recompiled kernel) and bzroot onto the flash.

 

This is a simple overview.

There are threads on the forum on how to compile a new kernel.

I suggest you do a search, then consider if you are up to the task.

 

One point I wanted to make iss the use of RAID10 on your parity drive.

Frankly, I'm not sure it's worth it.

You're designing for speed and redundancy, when in fact parity can always be re-calculated from the drives in the array.

Maybe the hotspare and redundancy is key for you.

Just keep in mind those 4 disks are going to always be spinning.

The same with your cache drive.

 

If the cache drive is going to capture allot of data and very fast, then do the RAID-10.

As I mentioned before, the drives will always be spinning and will not spin down when part of an array.

(at least this is my belief).

 

I have a 4 port 3ware card here, but don't have the time to test it.

 

 

[drchips]

Hmmm, looks like I have got to get my brain in gear & learn a bit about LINUX then javascript:void(0);

Wink

 

I had a suspicion that was the road that would have to be taken.

 

I can confirm the drives will NOT spin down (3Ware does not support this on RAID Volumes, tho I believe it is possible with single/JBOD drives).

 

Point taken about the PARITY, if I decide or am capable of getting it going that decision would have to be made after testing.

 

CACHE drive MUST be protected and must be fast, data could be streaming in from up to 5 sources at once, rate limited if needed  ISO's between 3 & 7 Gig each).

 

I also need to maintain up to 5 outgoing streams (DVD ISO's, so not bandwidth greedy).

 

Flow-rate control would be managed by the switch to ensure uninterrupted service to outgoing streams.

 

Thinking cap on then javascript:void(0);

Cool

[limetech]

For a seasoned admin, this would not be too difficult, for noobie, it will take a while.

...

 

Or, you can send me an email: [email protected] asking, "Hey man, can you build the 3ware driver for me?".  To which I would respond, "which model 3ware card is it?".