[WBEL-users] installing on a 2015S

[Chris]

Kernel 2.6.x no longer has built-in support for the 2015S RAID controllers, 
and Adaptec has ZERO desire to upgrade their drivers to support anything 
beyond kernel 2.4.  This includes Fedora Core 2 and up, RHEL 4 and up, and 
so on.  We went through hell, up to and including getting both Adaptec and 
Supermicro CEOs on the phone (no easy feat) because all our Supermicro 
servers at the time had the 2015S controllers - all 120+ of them.  Most of 
these were less than a year old, when we learned that Adaptec was no longer 
going to support Linux and turned into a Windows-only shop.  Long story 
short, Adaptec has no interest in Linux, and Supermicro is apparently too 
small and insignificant to pull any favors and have Adaptec write drivers 
for the hardware they themselves bundle with their servers, and design their 
own motherboards to support this type of zero-channel RAID controller with a 
special, dedicated slot right on the motherboard.  Go figure.  Guess 
Supermicro will turn into a Windows-only shop, too, since they can't get any 
help from Adaptec for the only 'officially supported' RAID controller they 
build their hardware around.

After a lot of discussions with Adaptec, they eventually sent us their last 
beta builds of the updated drivers, which at the time they were building on 
the development kernel 2.5.  We didn't have the resources to complete this 
project so we left it alone and moved on.... to Dell PowerEdge servers.  At 
least Dell is big enough to have the pull required to force their suppliers 
to provide updated firmware and drivers, as needed.  I used to hate Dell for 
many reasons, but after working with their hardware (server hardware only) 
and support, I have changed my opinion.  They do have very decent hardware 
and they do have reasonable support.  Hardware RAID may need some tweaking 
to get best performance, but nothing major - everything works perfectly out 
of the box, on both kernel 2.4 and 2.6.

Last month we took pictures of all Supermicro servers we just retired and 
sold on eBay (and replaced with Dell PowerEdge systems) and sent them to 
both Supermicro and Adaptec.  They will not get a single penny from us for 
as long as we can help it.  Adaptec = BAD, when it comes to Linux support. 
Just about anything else would be my choice.

Chris



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Joseph Shraibman" <joseph at xtenit.com>
To: <whitebox-users at beau.org>
Sent: Wednesday, September 28, 2005 8:35 PM
Subject: [WBEL-users] installing on a 2015S


>I have a system with a adaptec 2015S raid controller.  The whitebox linux 4 
>installer doesn't have the driver, and can't find any hard disk to install 
>onto.  Is this a problem inherited from redhat?  If so how can I use a 
>driver disk to install?
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