Message-ID: <3B3BC18C.FF7C9E2E@ieee.org>
Date: Thu, 28 Jun 2001 19:45:16 -0400
From: "Bryan J. Smith" <b.j.smith@ieee.org>
Organization: SmithConcepts, Inc.
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: Simon Matter <simon.matter@ch.sauter-bc.com>
CC: linux-xfs <linux-xfs@oss.sgi.com>
Subject: Re: XFS corruption on SoftRAID5
References: <3B3B6A45.3252B37C@ch.sauter-bc.com>
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Sender: owner-linux-xfs@oss.sgi.com
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Simon Matter wrote:
> Then I installed one Promise Ultra100TX2 IDE controller,
> connecting 4 IBM 60GB drives.

Ouch!  Talk about a performance bottleneck (using ATA drives as
"slaves").  And I don't want to even get started with the Promise
cards and drivers themselves.

> My next steps before giving up:
> - I have installed a second Prosime controller to make sure every IDE
> disk has it's own channel. (Don't blame Promise, I had exactly the same
> prob with the i820 IDE of the DELL Precision 220). Test is running right
> now...

Er, by this time, you could have spend a few buck more and gotten a
4-channel 3Ware Escalade 6000 or, better yet, 7000-series
(~$200-225).  Then you'd have _real_, independent,
microcontroller-driven hardware RAID-5 from the system perspective. 
Then "device" would then look like a single, "dumb" drive.  Plus the
3Ware driver has been in the stock kernel since 2.2.15.

> - Configuring the 4 IDE disks as RAID10 and test again. I will loose
> 60GB, but at least we then know that SoftRAID5 with IDE with XFS with
> ... with ... is DANGEROUS(tm).
> - Try with ext2 on the RAID5 :-(

I thought the whole 2.4 kernel and software RAID-5 was not
recommended, no matter what fs you use?

-- TheBS

-- 
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org   chat:thebs413
SmithConcepts, Inc.           http://www.SmithConcepts.com
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