[K12OSN] K12linux and SCSI... any thoughts?

[John Baillie]

On Tue, 2005-07-12 at 15:29, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Tue, 2005-07-12 at 08:01, Jim Kronebusch wrote:
> > > (SATA might work too -- I have no experience there, 
> > > only that 
> > > IDE won't cut it after about 8 clients)
> > 
> > >From my experience SATA is better than IDE, but still doesn't compare to
> > SCSI.  I have been trying some SATA raids in servers lately and without
> > doing any benchmarking the SATA is slower.  I can notice the difference
> > just working on the machine, not near as responsive.
> 
> Most of the inexpensive SATA raid cards are really doing software raid
> in the bios.  Have you tried one of these:
> http://www.3ware.com/products/serial_ata9000.asp?
> 
> I've only used the older IDE versions but they are real hardware RAID
> and appear as scsi devices to Linux.  The 8500 series has been stable
> for a long time with Linux drivers included in the kernel and I think
> the 9xxx versions are solid now. 

fwiw - We have just built a new server with a 3ware sata 9000 series
card in it. Will be bringing it on line tomorrow morning.
Our oldest server has a 3ware ata raid that has worked like a champ for
3 years now and it has supplied /home to all the students.

Our intention is to compare the performance of our 4 k12 servers, well
actually 3 because 2 are identical. One has the 3ware ata, two are scsi
running Linux software raid and now the the 3ware 9000.

Anyone have any input as how to make these comparisons? Bonnie++ I guess
is the tool of choice but it would be nice to have results that a laymen
could wrap their arms around.

John

-- 
John