Question

Compatibility - Ubuntu 9.10 on i7 with Software Raid 5

Asked by: rose1013

Looking to create a backup server solution. Question is:

Will Ubuntu 9.10 x64 run on a Core i7 with software Raid 5 for data and a separate drive for the OS? I'm mostly worried about i7 architecture running stable on the newest U9.1. Any experience in these areas?

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Asked On
2009-11-03 at 18:08:52ID24869577
Tags

Ubuntu

,

Core i7

,

raid 5

Topics

Ubuntu

,

Hard Drives & Storage

,

Computer CPU Processors

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Answers

 

by: KeremEPosted on 2009-11-03 at 18:27:09ID: 25735884

Hi,

Currently Janunty release 9.1 is very stable on the i7 hardware. I don't think you'll have a problem with it. In your initial post you say You waqnt RAID 5 but did not mention how would you like to setup. I mean do you have a special adapter? Do you want to use the on-board RAID ? Or do you want to use Softare RAID-5 through the OS.

Among them if you hae a real RAID-5 Adapter with battery backup is the best solution. But when it comes to on-board RAID you need to look for special raid drivers from the hardware (i.e., mobo manufacturer) vendor. Besides it is not real RAID it is called "Hardware assisted" software RAID. So you're both specific hardware dependent and you're not benefiting well from this dependency since all the RAID calculations will be performed by your system CPU not the adapter. So If this is the case I'll suggest you to go with the AHCI driver setup and build a software RIAD instead. At least if your mobo was fired for some reason you can move to another mobo without problems about the driver support issues.

Cheers,
K.

 

by: rose1013Posted on 2009-11-03 at 18:56:50ID: 25736022

Thanks. I read up on hardware/hardware assisted/software. Our budget won't allow for a REAL hw only raid and the idea of hardware assisted seemed dubious at best, so we were going to go for a full software implementation. I know it'll take a good bit of CPU (especially for the 5x 2TB drives running in raid 5) but that should be okay.

The real issue is we're buying 5900 RPM drives. Do you think Soft-R5 can get at least a simulated 7200-type speed while allowing redundancy?

 

by: KeremEPosted on 2009-11-04 at 04:35:30ID: 25738649

Hi,

First of all since "Hardware assisted RAID" is a marketing hype it will be using almost exact amount of CPU cycles in both software RAID and H/W Assisted RAID. So you're not better off with H/W assisted RAID. The real thing with H/W RAID is the XOR Logc chip and without it you need to do the calculations over your main CPU. This is hwy H/W assisted should not be better with than S/W RAID.

In fact RAID5 is good for redundancy but it is not a top performer. So anyone who wants to go with RAID 5 accepts that he'd have a redundant but slower disk performance. So even sme software applications advise against the use of RAID5 at all. But the spinning sped is not rally that matter. Because what you write to the disk directly goes to the buffer first and the Hard Disk controller logic writes it to the disk over time. So if you don't need 24 hours continuous DATA Flow I don't think you'll have a problem with disk performance and even if you do the performance difference will not be that much (less than 5900/7200) Since there are the Hard disk buffers and RAID logic. So in practice I don't think you can tell the difference and even if you'd with 15K RPM drives I don't think you would tell the difference. You can go for 5900 RPM drives.  The new generation 5900 drives are "greener" and they need less energy so the would have the real effect on your electricity bill and I believe it would be greater that the performance loss :)

Cheers,
K.

 

by: rose1013Posted on 2009-11-04 at 10:30:37ID: 25742293

Thanks all. I'll send in my build specs to the money guys. Hopefully they'll spring for it, but I have little faith that they will. At least I can say "I told you so, and here's the secret tape backup I made since I knew you wouldn't go for the real solution. We'll be back up in a week... Oh, can I have 2.5 grand now?"

 

by: KeremEPosted on 2009-11-04 at 17:55:59ID: 25746107

:) Go for it. I'm sure they will give you the missing 2,5 Grand :)

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