RAID

ally_uk

Hi guys I am in the process of experimenting with RAID and I wish to pick your brains in a attempt to gain some knowledge from you good people.

Baring in mind I'm kinda new to looking at servers ( hardware wise ) and I'm a bit lost to be honest as to how I go about things.

I'm looking at a Power Edge 2300 as a means of experimentation currently situated inside the machine is a PCI IDE controller and and SCSI Backplane ( I think that's what it's called) it's a card located at the front of the machine with SCSI connections allowing you to connect SCSI drives. As there is a warning sticker on the case I would presume Hot Swapping drives isn't supported.

Now onto the subject of RAID firstly I'm looking at RAID level 1 first just to get to grips with the whole concept. I have access to numerous hardware because I work for a charity in which we get computers donated to us so I currently have a few moderately sized SCSI drives.

So I have decided to use 2 drives and wish to get them to duplex or mirror ( RAID Level 1)

Questions for you guys

1) Do I require a RAID controller card to connect to the SCSI Backplane as i'm confused.
2) If i'm using 2 SCSI Drives do I need to do anything with Jumpers.
3) Ok I have plugged in the Drives now what?
4) Hardware or Software RAID what is the difference and what is the easiest.
5) Setting up Raid in Ubuntu Server is it easy and has anybody done it before?

I appreciate your time for looking at this and helping me shed a little light on this subject once again thank you guys!

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supertechCETma

The Small Computer System Interface

http://www.certiguide.com/apfr/cg_apfr_Chapter10TheSmallComputerSystemInterfaceSCSI.htm

ally_uk

Thank you for the guide on SCSI I am printing off a copy as we speak and will use it as reading material when I finish work tonight

sprkymrk

When setting up hardware RAID, you don't do it from withiin the OS whether Windows or Ubuntu. In this case, you use the Dell Server Setup CD that comes with the server (or you can download from Dell) or you can do it directly within the SCSI BIOS by watching for the prompt (F1 or F5 or something - I forget) and doing it there. Once you set up RAID 1 from the SCSI BIOS the OS (Windows, Linux, whatever) will only see one drive even though you have 2 drives set up in a mirror. If you are using Windows Server and installed using the Dell CD you will have a new snap-in within computer management that replaces Disk Manager so you can see the physical drives, the controllers they are connected to, and the RAID array itself, etc. In other words you'll see both the physical (2 drives) and logical (1 drive).

ajs1976

Is the PERC controller enabled on the server? With a dell server that has the backplane the hardware controller is builit into the system board. Then there is a key that can be plugged into the motherboard to enable it. If it is enabled, you should see a message about during bootup about the controller, if not it will just mention SCSI.

You can configure the RAID through the BIOS of the card or with the Dell desk. It would be a good idea to lookup your server on support.dell.com. Using the Service Tag, you should be able to get the orginal hardware configuration and documentation.

ally_uk

That's Grand that's for your advice

I'm still confused about SCSI devices regarding jumpers and setting the SCSI ID the cd rom I am using only allows you to set a ID up to 7 is this normal? because I thought it was 15

It took me a while to get my head around the jumpers I was first like eh? hang on that sort of resembles binary lol

Although I can't count binary in my head so I literally have to write it down on paper first before I change jumpers ahwell hopefully i'll get it oneday.