[ale] Dell PowerEdge 2450

[Jeff Hubbs]

Alan -

I too have a Dell PowerEdge 2450 with the Dell PERC3/si RAID controller.  I
have had Linux running on it for a few months and it currently has an uptime
of 115 days.  

Even though the PERC3/si controller appears to be Adaptec-based, the only
Linux path forward is to pick up a binary-only driver from Dell.  It's set
up to work under Red Hat, so that's the way you'd better go if you want an
easy time of it.  

If you're able to get anywhere using the Dell driver under Debian, I'd be
interested in hearing how you did it.  

IIRC, someone on the kernel devel mailing list asked about how to get
so-and-so kernel to compile on a similar machine but couldn't get the RAID
driver to work anymore, and Alan Cox responded by saying "That's why we
recommend you stay away from binary-only drivers."  

Lesson:  Steer clear of proprietary vendor-driver-only hardware.  Only use
RAID controllers with well-worn Linux ruts.

It's a shame, too, because I find the PERC3/si to be a really nice
controller.  You split your drive farm up into "containers" and the
different containers can have different RAID levels.  You still have to be
careful because if you have a RAID 5 container and a RAID 0 container, the
loss of a drive will destroy the RAID 0 container even though the RAID 5
container will remain recoverable.  I've got some RAID 5 and RAID 0+1
containers across my four drives (the swap partition is a 0+1).  This is a
lot more flexible than what I'm used to, where you block out entire drives
into logical arrays.

- JEff


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Alan Chung [mailto:alan at silveregg.co.jp]
> Sent: Monday, February 19, 2001 11:22 PM
> To: ale at ale.org
> Subject: [ale] Dell PowerEdge 2450
> 
> 
> Hello everyone,
> 
> I was looking for the information about how to install Debian 
> Linux on a 
> Dell 2450 with RAID controller on it.
> 
> I have got the lastest RESCUE and ROOT floppy disks for 
> 2.2.18pre kernel on 
> it and booted the machine into installation.  But it didn't 
> detect RAID and 
> so that couldn't any of the scsi HDD device.  Also I have 
> tried to download 
> the firmware of RAID from AMI's site and but don't know how 
> to install it 
> since it tells me to boot to DOS and upgrade it.  Can anyone 
> give me any 
> advice?  I appreciate very much.
> 
> Thank you very much in advance.
> 
> Alan
> 
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