Bill Davidsen wrote:

> Steve Wilder wrote:
>
>>
>> Hi All,
>>
>> I am going to build a SAMBA File server on a Redhat 9 1GHz 256MB
>> machine. I have three identicle 18 GB SCSI Hard dirves, and a
>> non-RAID SCSI controller.
>
>
> Bad O/S version, I would recommend going to at least FC2 so you can get
> fixes. If this is a funded project, invest $60/yr and subscribe to KRUD,
> a distribution sold like a magazine, new set of CDs with latest fixes
> and security software every month. Plus urgent fixes via network in real
> time. www.tummy.com/krud (I have no connection other than 3 satisfied
> years).
>
>>
>> I am trying to decide if I should use software RAID 5 on the SCSI
>> drives or not.
>>
>> I have some experience with hardware RAID 5. It seems like the RAID
>> array needs to be rebuilt about once or twice a year -- which concerns
>> me a little. Do you think software RAID will want to rebuild the
>> array as often?
>
>
> Unless your drives STB or power fails you should not see a rebuild. I
> haven't in three years.
>
>>
>> I'm just wondering if the risks of software RAID are higher than the
>> risks of a SCSI drive failure.
>>
>> I was going to list my perceived PROS & CONS for SCSI/RAID-5 Vs.
>> SCSI/individual partitions. But wanted to get the communities take.
>>
>> Does anyone have any experience with this decision?
>
>
> The only issue with software RAID is that if the boot drive (with MBR)
> fails the BIOS may not fall back. Typically if you have a fail which
> returns bad data for MBR, vs. "no data - hard fail" you may not fail over.
>
> I have 38 machines running IBM ServeRAID for SCSI, and I like them a
> lot. If your needs are not absolutely critical 7x24 software RAID will
> be fine. You might want to add one more drive and go RAID-6 with a new
> kernel.
>
> Also, many controllers limit stripe size to "not enough" for big reads,
> software RAID with larger stripes will provide better performance.
>

Good advice. I am going to try fedora this weekend. I plan on using
a small IDE drive for the MBR, and OS.

Thanks!

--
Steve Wilder
unpack "u", qq(1\<W1E\=F5W0\'1E8VAR9RYC\;VT\`);