Best Raid Controller

[jburleson]

This may have been asked before, but a quick search through the forum did not show anything.

Our department got some extra money so I am finally able to buy some raid controllers for our servers

Searching around google for controllers returned alot possibilities, but before I buy anything I wanted to check with the community to see what everybody else was running.

I also thought it might be a good chance for everyone to post what controllers they are using for future proxmox users who are getting ready to setup their servers.

Our current configuration:
Two Dell PowerEdge SC1425 (They have intergrate CERC 2 software raid controllers)

Thanks

 

[tog]

Areca for SATA RAID

 

[tom]

This may have been asked before, but a quick search through the forum did not show anything.

Our department got some extra money so I am finally able to buy some raid controllers for our servers

Searching around google for controllers returned alot possibilities, but before I buy anything I wanted to check with the community to see what everybody else was running.

I also thought it might be a good chance for everyone to post what controllers they are using for future proxmox users who are getting ready to setup their servers.

Our current configuration:
Two Dell PowerEdge SC1425 (They have intergrate CERC 2 software raid controllers)

Thanks

The Raid Controller has to support Debian Etch (without the need of extra drivers). Proxmox VE uses a 2.6.24 Kernel.

We got very good results with Adaptec 3805 SATA/SAS - we use these controller for "custom" machines, mainly in the test lab. HP server and there built in raid controller are also known to have good support for Debian Etch.

Make sure you get a batterie backup for write caching.

 

[tog]

Tom meant the Adaptec 3805, btw.

 

[tom]

Tom meant the Adaptec 3805, btw.

ups, thanks, I corrected my wrong post

 

[arthurhugo]

If I had to buy a new controller now it would be an Adaptec 5805.
No experience with them though. I now have LSI SAS contollers in my servers and their performance is satisfactory.

Tom's hardware isn't the most reliable source but one of the few comparisons of recent SAS controllers:
http://stage.tomshardware.com/2008/...ified_serial_controllers_dissected/index.html
Watch out for Areca as they perform really bad in certain scenarios. Maybe their popularity is based on SATA performance or their support for open source drivers.