Hi all @ sth-forums ;-)
A few months ago i purchased a HP DL180 G5 rackserver w/ 12 bays.
I've had a DIY server running for several years wih standard parts and a HP P800 controller which i bought because of the high port count. I has been rock solid, however expansion times are awfully slow on RAID6 (2 - 3 weeks to add a 2TB Hitachi drive), which has led me to fear that rebuild times will be equally slow, so when buying the new server, i decided to get a new and decent raid-controller which is able to handle RAID-6 and appr. 15-20 drives in RAID6. The 8 drives currently attached will be transferred to the new controller, and will in time grow to around 15 - 20 disks.
But will anything other than a HP-controller work in the DL180?
If yes,
I have a few need-to-have-things on my wish list for a new controller:
Should be able to disregard/override the attached disks timeouts, as i will be using consumer-drives (most probably Hitachi 7k2000 and their equivalent, after hitachi stopped making disks).
Have decent expansion/rebuild rates (ie *not* in the weeks range).
Battery-backup or preferably some implementation of CacheVault (as i understand CacheVault doesn't degrade over time as bateries do).
RAID-6 (obviously)
Nice to have
Should be able to monitor SMART-status and temperature (and if possible, be able to pass these readings to thirdparty programs like Harddisk Sentinel)
I've looked at a LSI9271 4i or 8i controller, because of the dual core ROC, and reviews seems to agree that its a good controller, however a bit pricey.
Or an Areca 1882 with 8i ports.
Dell, HP or IBM cards are welcome too, but i don't know enough about them to make an informed decision (yet ;-)
The reason I'm going after a high end controller and connecting low-end disks, is that i hope the controller can speed up the rebuild (obviously not faster than the individual disks, however i don't believe it to be necessary to use appr. 3 weeks for an 2TB expansion to a 6-drive RAID6...)
Maybe the controllers are way overkill for my needs, but i've really had enough of 3 weeks expansions ;-)
If anyone have input as to cables I would appreciate it very much, as the backplane of the drivebay uses a SF-8484 Wide connector, and I've read somewhere that they are directional...
Just a thought - Is it possible to start out with 2 TB disks, add 3 (or 4) TB disk, and phase out the smaller drives over time, and then expand the array to use the full 3 (or 4) TB disks, when the last of the 2TB drives are out of the array?
Thanks in advance (and merry Christmas ;-)
A few months ago i purchased a HP DL180 G5 rackserver w/ 12 bays.
I've had a DIY server running for several years wih standard parts and a HP P800 controller which i bought because of the high port count. I has been rock solid, however expansion times are awfully slow on RAID6 (2 - 3 weeks to add a 2TB Hitachi drive), which has led me to fear that rebuild times will be equally slow, so when buying the new server, i decided to get a new and decent raid-controller which is able to handle RAID-6 and appr. 15-20 drives in RAID6. The 8 drives currently attached will be transferred to the new controller, and will in time grow to around 15 - 20 disks.
But will anything other than a HP-controller work in the DL180?
If yes,
I have a few need-to-have-things on my wish list for a new controller:
Should be able to disregard/override the attached disks timeouts, as i will be using consumer-drives (most probably Hitachi 7k2000 and their equivalent, after hitachi stopped making disks).
Have decent expansion/rebuild rates (ie *not* in the weeks range).
Battery-backup or preferably some implementation of CacheVault (as i understand CacheVault doesn't degrade over time as bateries do).
RAID-6 (obviously)
Nice to have
Should be able to monitor SMART-status and temperature (and if possible, be able to pass these readings to thirdparty programs like Harddisk Sentinel)
I've looked at a LSI9271 4i or 8i controller, because of the dual core ROC, and reviews seems to agree that its a good controller, however a bit pricey.
Or an Areca 1882 with 8i ports.
Dell, HP or IBM cards are welcome too, but i don't know enough about them to make an informed decision (yet ;-)
The reason I'm going after a high end controller and connecting low-end disks, is that i hope the controller can speed up the rebuild (obviously not faster than the individual disks, however i don't believe it to be necessary to use appr. 3 weeks for an 2TB expansion to a 6-drive RAID6...)
Maybe the controllers are way overkill for my needs, but i've really had enough of 3 weeks expansions ;-)
If anyone have input as to cables I would appreciate it very much, as the backplane of the drivebay uses a SF-8484 Wide connector, and I've read somewhere that they are directional...
Just a thought - Is it possible to start out with 2 TB disks, add 3 (or 4) TB disk, and phase out the smaller drives over time, and then expand the array to use the full 3 (or 4) TB disks, when the last of the 2TB drives are out of the array?
Thanks in advance (and merry Christmas ;-)
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