FC4 x86_64 dies with heavy SATA RAID load

[Mark Miksis]

Peter Arremann wrote:
> On Wednesday 29 June 2005 21:58, Mark Miksis wrote:
> 
>> Very interesting reading - thanks for the link.  Some of those
>> posts suggest that the newer 3Ware firmware may "improve" the
>> issue. Otherwise, I guess I'm in the market for a different 4
>> channel RAID 5 SATA card.  Any recommendations?
> 
> 
> Actually, I have some 9500s that are finally getting stable. Each new
> driver revision and each new firmware is better than the last and by
> now, I have no issues (also running the x86_64 but on amd hardware).
> 
> 
> Anyone who asks me, usually gets a 8500 controller as recommendation
> because unlike the 9500s, those are actually rock solid. You should
> try the firmware updates and maybe the driver (if there is one newer
> than the one in the kernel you're running) and see if you can't get
> your box stable that way - as I said before, it worked for me.
> 
> Also, you might want to get an AMD system next time if you have heavy
> IO and more than 4GB ram - the AMD iommu requires no bounce
> buffers...
> 
> Peter.
> 

Well, I upgraded to the latest driver today and the problem persists.
(By the way, upgrading via the driver source does also upgrade the
firmware and BIOS.)  I spoke to 3Ware support.  They seemed familiar
with the problem but blamed it on Red Hat's Kernels.  They then referred
me to some performance tuning appnotes which I tried with no success.

I guess I'm off to buy a new card this afternoon - probably LSI or Adaptec.