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I am building a DB linux box and I want raid 5. I am thinking about doing ide instead of scsi (looking for experience)

Hello,
I have to build a new DB box. I want to run raid 5 on this box. All the other servers i have i have scsi with raid 5 and those really expensive fast scsi drives. Well i have had more failures in a 2 yr time , that i ever had with all my ide drives.

So i am thinking of building this box with a ide raid.
(**NOTE** i am not a hardware guy, i have to be cause i own a small little business )

1) can i get raid 5 controllers for ide drives.
2) what would be the disadvantages?

Thanks for any help

grblades

Hi paries,
1) Yes you can. The company called Promise have made them for a number of years so they should be well supported by Linux.

2)
Only two drives per interface so lots of interfaces on the controller and cables everywhere.
IDE does not handle writing to multiple drives at once as efficiently as SCSI.
No hot plug support.
No visual indication of a drive failure.

crazijoe

The problem with IDE drives compare to SCSI is performance. SCSI seek and access times are far superior to IDE and transfer speeds are greater with SCSI. But if you are looking for a RAID 5 IDE solution, I would probably get a 3ware card.

http://www.3ware.com/products/parallel_ata.asp

jbuttery

SCSI drive failures? Or controller failures?

I run Seagate/Adaptec SCSI RAID 5 in production and recommend same to my customers. 24/7 100% uptime for business critical data.

paries

ASKER

i bought 8 maxtor scsi and over 2 years 4 have failed

SOLUTION

grblades

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Cyber-Dude

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