[WBEL-users] RAID

[Luke Scharf]

On Mon, 2005-03-07 at 15:47, Arif Gangji wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> This is my first time trying to install Whitebox 3.0 and I'm having all
> sorts of problems...mainly with the Highpoint RocketRAID 133 card that is in
> the system....Highpoint doesn't have drivers for this kernel, anyone have
> any ideas or suggestions?
> 
> I tried compiling a proper driver with their source files using directions
> from:
> http://www.centos.org/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?topic_id=223
> 
> I figured it would be close, but no luck....
> 
> Bios on the machine sees the drives, sees the RAID setup, try to install
> WBEL and it doesn't see them to partition them.
> 
> Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Depending on how much your time is worth, just buy another card.  Cheap
ones (Promise, etc) cost less than $100.  Really really nice ones
(3Ware, etc) cost as much as $300.

If you make, say, $20/hr, will buying a new cheap RAID card save you
more than 5 hours?  If the $300 card is more appropriate to the
task-at-hand, will buying it save you more than 15 hours?  If so, buy
the card, make the machine work in a few minutes, and spend the time
doing other work.  If buying the card won't save you time==money, then
keep working with the software.

Since you have the source, you can write your own driver or do any other
number of great tricks if you have to.  But, if you've got a lot of
other work to do, is really worth the time-investment?  Also, a solution
that has been more widely used and tested will probably be more reliable
than a homebrew or bleeding-edge driver -- and will be much easier for
someone else to troubleshoot when the $#!t hits the fan.

I am very much ready for my vacation to begin.  :-)

-Luke

-- 
Luke Scharf, Systems Administrator
Virginia Tech Aerospace and Ocean Engineering