Slashdot Mirror

Annirak writes "With the bottom dropping out of the magnetic disk market and SSD prices still over $3/GB, I want to know if there is a way to to get the best of both worlds. Ideally, a caching algorithm would store frequently used sectors, or sectors used during boot or application launches (hot sectors), to the SSD. Adaptec has a firmware implementation of this concept, called MaxIQ, but this is only for use on their RAID controllers and only works with their special, even more expensive, SSD. Silverstone recently released a device which does this for a single disk, but it is limited: it caches the first part of the magnetic disk, up to the size of the SSD, rather than caching frequently used sectors. The FS-Cache implementation in recent Linux kernels seems to be primarily intended for use in NFS and AFS, without much provision for speeding up local filesystems. Is there a way to use an SSD to act as a hot sector cache for a magnetic disk under Linux?"

grocer asks: "Due to a piano, the living room suddenly has too much furniture and the TV is going upstairs. I just got a Dell Dimension 4600 with DVD (ROM and RW), 17" Flat screen, and the good speakers and it's staying downstairs. The Dell is under warranty and I'm not opening it, so card based solutions are out. I know it has enough power/space (2.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 60+ gig free) to run MPEG-2 and do PVR, I just can't find a good review/comparison on the web of USB PVR hardware. I've it gotten down to the Adaptec VideOh! DVD Media Center USB 2.0 or the AVerMedia UltraTV USB 300. Any other recommendations for USB tuners? Anybody else move the TV and replace it with a computer?"

Today's installment is a lengthy (but hopefully informative) piece on mirroring controllers. Ever had weird problems with a FastTrack TX2000? Are you curious how well HighPoints RocketRAID boards are really supported? Ever wondered which controller gives you the best performance for every dollar spent? In true Slashdot tradition, we're taking the issue and throwing it out to you, the readers. Futurepower(R) is willing to start us off with a wealth of information on his experiences, and I'm hoping a few of you are willing to do the same. Futurepower(R) asks: "What experiences, both good and bad, have you had with mirroring controllers? Are there manufacturers I haven't found?

For those who are interested but don't have experience, mirroring controllers (RAID 1) provide several advantages:

1. They prevent data loss when a hard drive fails. The other drive in the mirror takes over seamlessly.
2. Reading of data is considerably faster since the controller reads the data from the drive that has a head closest to the data.
3. You always have a full hard disk backup that you can pull from your system at any time, such as before installing new software.
4. You can clone a Windows XP drive using the RAID card, and you will have a bootable copy. This is valuable, since the Windows XP file system cannot copy all of its own files. (Don't flame this; it has been verified many times by Microsoft employees, who often suggest using the third-party tools.)

I've found four manufacturers that make inexpensive mirroring controllers:

1. Promise Technology's FastTrak TX2000 is available for about $85 delivered.
2. HighPoint's RocketRAID 133 costs about $80.
3. ACARD Technology's AEC-6880 costs about about $85. Froogle found only one vendor. That's scary.
4. Adaptec makes the ATA RAID 1200A, which is available for about $59 before delivery charges.

As you can see, these controllers cost from $59 to $85. Last weekend Fry's was selling a retail boxed 1800 MHz Athlon XP processor with fan included and an ECS motherboard for $59 total. So $80 seems like a lot for a little card with one chip and a flash ROM.

ECS (EliteGroup) has made 11 motherboards with on-board RAID mirroring controllers. One of them, the P4VXAD, has a Promise controller and costs about $52. What's that about? Employees at Fry's tell me that ECS has the poorest quality control of any of the motherboard manufacturers that they sell. To me, ECS motherboards seem to have surprisingly high quality. However, we have only tested three, and only one extensively.

Silicon Image makes, or made, their 0680 RAID chipset, and Koutech Systems sells the IOFLEX-Pir133 using that chipset. It costs $25 retail. I tried a Koutech card and had a lot of trouble with it, even after updating the BIOS. I talked to an application engineer at Silicon Image and a manager there. I was told that SI bought the technology from another company, and apparently it is no longer supported, doesn't work well, and the company does not intend to put more money into it. I found that the Koutech card corrupts files. The card gives a Stop 07B error when going into the Windows XP Recovery Console, unless the driver is loaded by hand, every time. I lost a lot of time with a product that apparently should not be sold.

My experience with mirroring controllers is mostly with those from Promise Technology. I've been using Promise mirroring controllers since they began making them.

The good about Promise:

1. Promise has been selling RAID 1 controllers a long time. They work.
2. Promise controllers can clone a hard drive quickly.
3. Now some motherboards have Promise mirroring chipsets. You can get the entire motherboard with the Promise controller on the board, for maybe $50 more than the Promise controller card alone.
4. Linux drivers are available. The web site says, "Windows XP/2000/NT4/Me/9x; Novell NetWare 4.1x/5.x; RedHat Linux 7.0/7.1/7.2; TurboLinux Server 6.5; TurboLinux Workstation 7; SuSE Linux 7.2; OpenLinux 3.1" Does that mean that later versions of Linux can't use this card, or did Promise forget to update the brochure PDF file?
5. Promise controllers work fine under DOS, but there is no error reporting if for some reason the mirror breaks.

The disadvantages with Promise, in my opinion:

1. Promise mirroring controllers have a software feature called "sychronization". I've asked many times over the years why it is necessary, since mirrored hard drives should be synchronized 100% of the time. I've never gotten an answer. Recently I've been told by Promise technical support people not to use synchronization, since it has caused problems. It sounds like some technical problem is being hidden.
2. Promise does not support their oldest mirroring controllers under Windows XP. This is a problem since there are many business computers that are used for data entry. A Pentium II is as fast as is necessary. Windows 98 is stable with only one program running. Now those computers need to be converted to Windows XP, since Microsoft has declared that its operating systems have a curious quality: They die. (According to Microsoft, it doesn't matter that at least 100,000,000 people are using Windows 98 worldwide, it came to the end of its life on "30-Jun-2003".)
   
   So, it is necessary to buy another controller for old data entry systems. Notice that Microsoft and Promise could decide to play this game again, and I would like to avoid the second round of buying and installing even another controller. I'd like to find a company that continues to support its products.
   
   The speed of computers used for data entry does not matter, but the security of the data does. Hard drive failures are becoming rare, but a hard drive failure can cause a lot of problems on a data entry computer, so mirroring is required.
3. Some Promise controllers, especially those on motherboards, take a long time to boot. Dots crawl across the screen even if no drives are connected to the controller. Is keeping the Promise name on the screen a time-wasting sales message from Promise? Recently Promise released a BIOS upgrade for some of its cards that reduced the dot-crawling time. However, there is apparently no upgrade for Promise controllers on motherboards.
4. About 2 months after I reported problems, Executive Software said they found a bug in their Diskeeper defragmentation software that might cause data corruption when used with Promise controllers. They said everyone using Diskeeper should upgrade to the new, free, minor version. I've seen no problems since then.
5. Promise Technology's sales literature can be disgusting. This is the second sentence in Promise's description of the FastTrak TX2000: "The FastTrak TX2000 ATA RAID card supports Ultra ATA/133 drives to rock workstations and boost small (or large) office servers like never before." To me, this is obviously written by someone who knows nothing about the product and doesn't care.
6. I find the abundant use of PDF files and unnecessary JavaScript on Promise Technology's web site annoying.

The Adaptec controller is cheaper, but it is Windows only. There are apparently no Linux drivers. This is a huge drawback, since these same old data entry computers may be still running when Windows dies again, and Windows XP is no longer supported, and there are Linux versions of the data entry programs, or they run under Wine.

The Acard controller supports SuSE, Red Hat, Caldera, and Turbo Linux, it says. But remember, Froogle found only one vendor.

HighPoint says they support Linux: "Linux Red Hat 7.3 & 8.0 (Software RAID Only)". This apparently means the card does not support Linux at all, since Linux has software RAID built in.

So, that's the extent of my knowledge and experience. Can you provide further insight?"

Today's installment is a lengthy (but hopefully informative) piece on mirroring controllers. Ever had weird problems with a FastTrack TX2000? Are you curious how well HighPoints RocketRAID boards are really supported? Ever wondered which controller gives you the best performance for every dollar spent? In true Slashdot tradition, we're taking the issue and throwing it out to you, the readers. Futurepower(R) is willing to start us off with a wealth of information on his experiences, and I'm hoping a few of you are willing to do the same. Futurepower(R) asks: "What experiences, both good and bad, have you had with mirroring controllers? Are there manufacturers I haven't found?

For those who are interested but don't have experience, mirroring controllers (RAID 1) provide several advantages:

1. They prevent data loss when a hard drive fails. The other drive in the mirror takes over seamlessly.
2. Reading of data is considerably faster since the controller reads the data from the drive that has a head closest to the data.
3. You always have a full hard disk backup that you can pull from your system at any time, such as before installing new software.
4. You can clone a Windows XP drive using the RAID card, and you will have a bootable copy. This is valuable, since the Windows XP file system cannot copy all of its own files. (Don't flame this; it has been verified many times by Microsoft employees, who often suggest using the third-party tools.)

I've found four manufacturers that make inexpensive mirroring controllers:

1. Promise Technology's FastTrak TX2000 is available for about $85 delivered.
2. HighPoint's RocketRAID 133 costs about $80.
3. ACARD Technology's AEC-6880 costs about about $85. Froogle found only one vendor. That's scary.
4. Adaptec makes the ATA RAID 1200A, which is available for about $59 before delivery charges.

As you can see, these controllers cost from $59 to $85. Last weekend Fry's was selling a retail boxed 1800 MHz Athlon XP processor with fan included and an ECS motherboard for $59 total. So $80 seems like a lot for a little card with one chip and a flash ROM.

ECS (EliteGroup) has made 11 motherboards with on-board RAID mirroring controllers. One of them, the P4VXAD, has a Promise controller and costs about $52. What's that about? Employees at Fry's tell me that ECS has the poorest quality control of any of the motherboard manufacturers that they sell. To me, ECS motherboards seem to have surprisingly high quality. However, we have only tested three, and only one extensively.

Silicon Image makes, or made, their 0680 RAID chipset, and Koutech Systems sells the IOFLEX-Pir133 using that chipset. It costs $25 retail. I tried a Koutech card and had a lot of trouble with it, even after updating the BIOS. I talked to an application engineer at Silicon Image and a manager there. I was told that SI bought the technology from another company, and apparently it is no longer supported, doesn't work well, and the company does not intend to put more money into it. I found that the Koutech card corrupts files. The card gives a Stop 07B error when going into the Windows XP Recovery Console, unless the driver is loaded by hand, every time. I lost a lot of time with a product that apparently should not be sold.

My experience with mirroring controllers is mostly with those from Promise Technology. I've been using Promise mirroring controllers since they began making them.

The good about Promise:

1. Promise has been selling RAID 1 controllers a long time. They work.
2. Promise controllers can clone a hard drive quickly.
3. Now some motherboards have Promise mirroring chipsets. You can get the entire motherboard with the Promise controller on the board, for maybe $50 more than the Promise controller card alone.
4. Linux drivers are available. The web site says, "Windows XP/2000/NT4/Me/9x; Novell NetWare 4.1x/5.x; RedHat Linux 7.0/7.1/7.2; TurboLinux Server 6.5; TurboLinux Workstation 7; SuSE Linux 7.2; OpenLinux 3.1" Does that mean that later versions of Linux can't use this card, or did Promise forget to update the brochure PDF file?
5. Promise controllers work fine under DOS, but there is no error reporting if for some reason the mirror breaks.

The disadvantages with Promise, in my opinion:

1. Promise mirroring controllers have a software feature called "sychronization". I've asked many times over the years why it is necessary, since mirrored hard drives should be synchronized 100% of the time. I've never gotten an answer. Recently I've been told by Promise technical support people not to use synchronization, since it has caused problems. It sounds like some technical problem is being hidden.
2. Promise does not support their oldest mirroring controllers under Windows XP. This is a problem since there are many business computers that are used for data entry. A Pentium II is as fast as is necessary. Windows 98 is stable with only one program running. Now those computers need to be converted to Windows XP, since Microsoft has declared that its operating systems have a curious quality: They die. (According to Microsoft, it doesn't matter that at least 100,000,000 people are using Windows 98 worldwide, it came to the end of its life on "30-Jun-2003".)
   
   So, it is necessary to buy another controller for old data entry systems. Notice that Microsoft and Promise could decide to play this game again, and I would like to avoid the second round of buying and installing even another controller. I'd like to find a company that continues to support its products.
   
   The speed of computers used for data entry does not matter, but the security of the data does. Hard drive failures are becoming rare, but a hard drive failure can cause a lot of problems on a data entry computer, so mirroring is required.
3. Some Promise controllers, especially those on motherboards, take a long time to boot. Dots crawl across the screen even if no drives are connected to the controller. Is keeping the Promise name on the screen a time-wasting sales message from Promise? Recently Promise released a BIOS upgrade for some of its cards that reduced the dot-crawling time. However, there is apparently no upgrade for Promise controllers on motherboards.
4. About 2 months after I reported problems, Executive Software said they found a bug in their Diskeeper defragmentation software that might cause data corruption when used with Promise controllers. They said everyone using Diskeeper should upgrade to the new, free, minor version. I've seen no problems since then.
5. Promise Technology's sales literature can be disgusting. This is the second sentence in Promise's description of the FastTrak TX2000: "The FastTrak TX2000 ATA RAID card supports Ultra ATA/133 drives to rock workstations and boost small (or large) office servers like never before." To me, this is obviously written by someone who knows nothing about the product and doesn't care.
6. I find the abundant use of PDF files and unnecessary JavaScript on Promise Technology's web site annoying.

The Adaptec controller is cheaper, but it is Windows only. There are apparently no Linux drivers. This is a huge drawback, since these same old data entry computers may be still running when Windows dies again, and Windows XP is no longer supported, and there are Linux versions of the data entry programs, or they run under Wine.

The Acard controller supports SuSE, Red Hat, Caldera, and Turbo Linux, it says. But remember, Froogle found only one vendor.

HighPoint says they support Linux: "Linux Red Hat 7.3 & 8.0 (Software RAID Only)". This apparently means the card does not support Linux at all, since Linux has software RAID built in.

So, that's the extent of my knowledge and experience. Can you provide further insight?"

Dan writes "FreeBSD Release Engineering Team's Scott Long presents the FreeBSD November-December 2002 Bi-Monthly status report. Key highlights of the report include the anticipated FreeBSD 5.0 Release, Bluetooth stack development, busdma driver conversion project, DEVD, C99 & POSIX Conformance Project, FreeBSD Package Cluster work and much more!"

davco9200 asks: "I am looking to create a large data server for all my digital media files. The usage is the 'pro-user' category, to use the media from multiple stations in my house and at work. I value space (150+ gb would be nice), accessible from multiple platforms (Win, Mac), but perhaps most of all, some security (e.g. RAID 0 doesn't cut it). Total write or read access isn't that high of a priority. I have looked at things like the Snap 4100 that offer 160 gb or 300 gb and good raid options but the price seems high ($2,700 and $4,500 respectively). Has anyone had any experience making their own low-end NAS? Has anyone looked at the Adaptec IDE RAID Controller? This seems like a reasonable way of getting data parity so if one drive goes down your entire collection isn't lost. I figured Slashdot readers would have some good solutions. Information on specific cases, drives, and other pertinent facts would be helpful."

GeorgieBoy writes: "Adaptec has announced support for Ultra160 SCSI adapters under Intel 64-bit Linux. Looks like IA-64 Linux will be pretty well supported upon Itanium's arrival." There already are SCSI adapters for the (also 64-bit) Alpha under Linux, but this move sounds like a smart one for Adaptec to tie their name to both Linux and IA-64. Other companies planning pre-emptive hardware support? Step right up, please.

shlong writes "Just wanted to let you all know that the release candidate of FreeBSD 4.0 is now available at the usual places. Both i386 and Alpha iso images are available (and both are bootable!). A full list of changes is at the release notes. "

hooligan writes "This is an annoucement from Adaptec for support for their new transfer speed for Linux. Check the press release."

Dr. Tom writes "The FTC has blocked the sale of Symbios (a leading supplier of SCSI devices) to Adaptec. Symbios is owned by Hyundai and the deal would have been worth $700 million. It's not clear why they blocked the sale. Check it out. "
An update to this is that it was abandoned because the FTC indicated that they would oppose the sale on anti-trust grounds, because of the market position it would put Adaptec.