arcoide ide raid controllers

[Chris Snow]

Do the arcoide raid controllers work well with openbsd?

Are they good value for money/reliable?

Any feedback appreciated.

TIA,

Chris

[C. Bensend]

Post by Chris Snow
Do the arcoide raid controllers work well with openbsd?
Are they good value for money/reliable?

I use several, and except for having to remove the pciide driver
from the kernel, they work flawlessly.

Benny

[Kit Halsted]

Post by Chris Snow
Do the arcoide raid controllers work well with openbsd?

My experience with this product was not good. Aside from the hassle
of digging up a working floppy & a Win 98 box to put the setup disk
on bootable media, I ran into known-but-undocumented bug with Via
chipsets that prevented me from using the damned thing. Result: 1
week behind on project delivery, many wasted (unbillable) hours.

Post by Chris Snow
Are they good value for money/reliable?
Any feedback appreciated.

I was looking for 240GB of RAID 1 or 5 storage.

Arco controller: $250
(4) 120GB disks: $800
total: $1050

Adaptec 2400A: $315
(4) 120GB disks: $800
total: $1115

The Adaptec controller does RAID-5, which lets me use one of the
disks as a hot spare. The Adaptec controller is also a hell of a lot
faster.

On the other hand, Arco does get some points for customer service.
There was no hassle returning the infernal device.

Hope this saves you some headache,
-Kit

[Joseph C. Bender]

Post by C. Bensend

Post by Chris Snow
Do the arcoide raid controllers work well with openbsd?
Are they good value for money/reliable?

I've had somewhat-okay luck with them. Here's a mostly-serious review
from Nick Holland a while back:

http://www.sigmasoft.com/~openbsd/archive/openbsd-misc/200007/msg01199.html

Post by C. Bensend
I use several, and except for having to remove the pciide driver
from the kernel, they work flawlessly.

This I'm wondering about. Was it because of the unit, or because of the
motherboard? I've got a SCO UNIX system at a client that is having lockup
issues any time there's very very heavy I/O (mostly on software updates
from a CD-ROM on a separate channel. Turning down the controller max speed
on the motherboard I'm using seems to help.

If you're looking at getting the total-enclosure system, be mindful, the
fans on the things are damned annoying, being high-pitched and loud.

I've never had any data loss with these units.



Signing off,

--
Joseph C. Bender
jcbender at benderhome dot net

[C. Bensend]

Post by Joseph C. Bender
This I'm wondering about. Was it because of the unit, or because of the
motherboard? I've got a SCO UNIX system at a client that is having lockup

I can only assume it was because of the unit or driver... I tried
the DupliDisk II (two separate units) on three different
motherboards, and they all hung unless I disabled pciide.

If I could afford it, I'd have one drop shipped to a developer,
but I don't really have that extra cash right now.

Benny

[Joseph C. Bender]

Post by C. Bensend

Post by Joseph C. Bender
This I'm wondering about. Was it because of the unit, or because of the
motherboard? I've got a SCO UNIX system at a client that is having lockup

I can only assume it was because of the unit or driver... I tried
the DupliDisk II (two separate units) on three different
motherboards, and they all hung unless I disabled pciide.

Strange. I've not had that problem with the Arco DD-II boxen (with one
motherboard variant, mind you) on OpenBSD(3.1 at the time).

However, Nick Holland has tipped me off to a similiar product that I'm
highly considering replacing these Arco boxes with (if the client buys into
it).

http://www.accusys.com.tw/7500.htm
http://www.accusys.com.tw

Same thing as an Arco, but no config/mirroring util, and can do it on the
fly. Hell of a lot quieter, and no more SCO IDE issues. Does a nifity
Knight Rider pattern with the LEDs if nothing's going on. *grin*

I'm planning on pitching it to them as a way to help keep their
redundant/backup machine in sync. Right now, they're (supposed to be)
restoring their nightly backups to the redundant machine, testing the
tapes, but I'd like to remirror on a weekly basis, to get them familiar
with the process in case of failure.

I've got no experience with OpenBSD on it yet, but maybe Nick could chime
in on that. 8-)




Signing off,

--
Joseph C. Bender
jcbender at benderhome dot net

[C. Bensend]

Post by Joseph C. Bender
However, Nick Holland has tipped me off to a similiar product that I'm
highly considering replacing these Arco boxes with (if the client buys into
it).
http://www.accusys.com.tw/7500.htm
http://www.accusys.com.tw
Same thing as an Arco, but no config/mirroring util, and can do it on the
fly. Hell of a lot quieter, and no more SCO IDE issues. Does a nifity
Knight Rider pattern with the LEDs if nothing's going on. *grin*

Well, hell, if it does neater things with the LEDs... ;)

I'll have to check this out - I'm going to be buying another
RAID controller very shortly. How much does it cost? I'm
having no luck finding a price on their site...

Nick, any input?

Benny

[Joseph C. Bender]

Post by C. Bensend
Well, hell, if it does neater things with the LEDs... ;)
I'll have to check this out - I'm going to be buying another
RAID controller very shortly. How much does it cost? I'm
having no luck finding a price on their site...

Good luck on getting it shipped from .tw. 8-) They only deal with
resellers.

pricewatch.com had listings for it around the $200 mark, not counting
shipping. Search for Accusys.



Signing off,

--
Joseph C. Bender
jcbender at benderhome dot net

[Nick Holland]

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