[WBEL-users] Re: RAID using Highpoint hpt37x

[Keith Morse]

On Mon, 5 Apr 2004, Thrift Internet Service wrote:

> I have installed WBEL and am 'kicking the tires'. So far it looks very good. I'll be testing the machine for use as a RADIUS authentication & email server in actual production soon. 
> 
> One thing I insist on in my servers is hardware RAID, and I have standardized on the Highpoint hpt372 chip. The Highpoint driver worked fine for RH 8 & 9, but it doesn't work at all for WBEL.
> 
> I was on the phone with Highpoint support this morning and was told that the RH9 driver is not compatible with the RHEL3 kernel. They expect to release a RHEL3 compatible driver very soon, perhaps as early as this week. That driver should work fine with WBEL.
> 

This is probably the best reason to not standardize on HPT372.  The
topic has been discussed serveral times on the redhat lists with the
crux of discussion being HighPoint not releasing the drivers for
inclusion into the kernel tree.  So if there is a big glaring security
hole in the kernel you're stuck with not updating until HighPoint
releases a new kernel.  Doesn't seem terribly prudent to me.

On the other hand,  I setup a RH9 box for a friend to test out the
hardware mirroring that the controller provides.  Works great, you just
cannot update the kernel when you want or need to.