PCI RAID for 'gift'

[Mike Maltese]

m wrote:	
> 	My wife has done the unthinkable this season! She decided to buy me
> a new server for our small office, which I am more than excited about,
> except for one paramount detail...

Well, I'm jealous!

> It is a respectable 1U server with the following specs from manual:
> Dual (2) IntelR XEON 2.8GHz HT Processors=20
> 533MHz Front Side Bus, Hyperthread
> 512K L2 Cache=20
> Intel E7501 Server Chipset
> 2GB PC2100 ECC Reg. DDR Memory
> Dual (2) 160GB SATA Hard Drives, 8MB Buffer=20
> 52x Sony CDROM Drive (black)=20
> 8MB Onboard ATIR RageT XL=20
> Intel 10/100Mbps NIC=20
> Intel Gigabit NIC
> 
> And now the problem:
> SuperMicro Board comes with onboard RAID, an Adaptec ICH5R SATA
> controller.

Take a look here:
http://www.techno-obscura.com/~delgado/notes/fbsd-ich5SATAraid.html

While it is possible to create a mirrored array with the ICH5 
controller, I can't say that I'd recommend it for anything important or 
in an environment that it would be subjected to heavy loads. The only 
way I can see using this method would be in conjunction with a 
consistent backup routine (which should be practiced in all situations 
anyway).

My suggestion would be to get a 3ware 8006-2LP. It's inexpensive at 
<$150, it's real hardware RAID, and hot-swapping is supported. 3ware 
even has a CLI application for controlling and monitoring your arrays. 
I've personally used this card with FreeBSD 5.3 with great results.

Mike