Dell/LSI RAID controllers

[Charles Sprickman]

On Thu, 24 Sep 2009, Scott Long wrote:

> On Sep 23, 2009, at 11:12 PM, Charles Sprickman wrote:
>
>> Hello all,
>> 
>> I'm considering a Dell, specifically the Poweredge 2970, and I'm not 
>> finding much info on their site about the various raid controller options - 
>> there don't seem to be any actual specs.
>> 
>> Anyone here familiar with the various models (PERC 5i, PERC 6I, SAS 6/iR) 
>> and what FBSD driver each one uses?  All are within my price range.  I 
>> assume all can handle SATA as well as SAS, correct?  Is performance in the 
>> ballpark of a $500 3Ware or Areca card?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> 
>
> Dell hardware works well and is well supported.

That's good to know.  Before I hit the Dell site, I was looking at 
barebones Supermicro servers (and some others) and Dell beat the "build it 
yourself" price by a wide margin.  Currently there's a $460 discount on 
the 2970.

> SAS5/6 means that it's a SAS+SATA controller that does basic RAID0 and 
> RAID1.  PERC5/6 means that it's a full-fledged caching RAID controller. 
> There is even a management tool for both the SAS5/6 and PERC5/6 
> controllers.

Does Dell bother documenting this stuff anywhere?  I find their website 
barely usable (both in terms of response time - awful and organization - 
also awful).

Does the SAS6 do mirror+stripe?  Is the management tool something that 
requires the whole boatload of Linux compat stuff or is it something 
simple like "mptutil"?

Lastly, I see the PERC6 is about $300 beyond the "integrated" SAS6ir. 
What more does the PERC version offer?  Google is showing me some people 
calling the non-PERC "quasi-raid" which worries me...

Thanks,

Charles

> Scott
>