Re: some linux tuning

Brian writes:
> On Sat, 26 Jun 1999 jlewis@lewis.org wrote:
>
> > On Sat, 26 Jun 1999, Brian wrote:
> >
> > > PII450
> > > 512MB SDRAM
> > > DPT3334UW RAID controller doing RAID0 with 64MB disk cache
> > > Linux 2.2.7ac4
> >
> > I don't know how the 3334 performs for RAID0, but I played with one for
> > RAID5, and it was pretty slow. Isn't Linux software RAID0 (especially on
> > a PII450) likely to give much better performance than the DPT card?
>
> The RAID5 is not the fastest. DPT has a whole new generation of cards
> using the i960 chipset (like the mylex's do) and its cheaper and alot
> faster, I haven't use them yet though. The DPT driver for linux is solid
> though. The RAID0 is pretty decent, actually its very good. The 64MB
> disk cache really helps too. I would be interested in seeing some
> benchmarks between DPT RAID0 and md RAID0.

BTW, I'll give a free plug to Adjile <http://www.adjile.com/> which
custom-builds external SCSI RAID systems or hot-swappable SCSI disk
systems (rackmount or tower) to your specs. They use higher-end RAID
controllers than you'll see in most on-board RAID systems - though you
can spec your own - so your SCSI controller can treat it as a plain
disk. Our servers are using CRD 54xx RAID controllers, with the main
one having 96MB cache.

This is definitely more expensive than software RAID, but I think it
really delivers on the performance and the low-maintenance. We've
tested that the features like warm-spare and background-rebuild really
work by pulling a disk out while it's running, and there is no visible
effect on the UNIX server running on it.

Excellent customer service, and they're very good at helping you figure
out what RAID mode, what size of disks, etc. would best suit your
performance needs.

  -- Clifton

-- 
 Clifton Royston  --  LavaNet Systems Architect --  cliftonr@lava.net
        "An absolute monarch would be absolutely wise and good.  
           But no man is strong enough to have no interest.  
             Therefore the best king would be Pure Chance.  
              It is Pure Chance that rules the Universe; 
          therefore, and only therefore, life is good." - AC