ARECA Owner's Thread (SAS/SATA RAID Cards)

I can't decide between an old 1280ML on ebay for 700 or pony up the 1300 for the 1880ix (24 port versions). Is the 1880 that big an upgrade? Will I have problems with either in 2003 server standard x32?
I don't really need a ton of speed just something for 24 drives worth.
Do I still have to install drivers via dos to have them boot up in 2003 server?
 
You probably won't see that big of a performance difference as it is in the price.
However, newer engine will certainly give you more in terms of speed as well as some kind of future-proofing (6Gbit per channel), but if you are tight on money the older one will still be golden.

Yes, in 2003 you still have to use a floppy to load the drivers.
 
Personally, I would get an 1880i (8 port version) and add an Intel SAS expander. Total price would be around $600 + $250. This would also give you 24 ports (single linked - 20 on expander, 4 on card) or 16 high performance ports (dual linked to expander). Same amount of ports, latest card technology, lower price.
 
I'd certainly agree that ARC-1880 series controllers are awesome, but even Areca engineers say that their SATA controllers have better compatibility with SATA drives than their SAS counterparts. So, if you plan on using only SATA drives, then go with 1280ML, if you have doubts then go with an ARC-1880 series controller.
 
It is true that the 12xx series cards have better compatibility with SATA drives. If you already have purchased the HDDs, this might be a consideration. If you haven't purchased the drives yet, then I would still go for the 1880i + SAS expander and simply get Hitachi drives, which are well known to work reliably with Areca cards, including the SAS models.

Another point in favor of the 12xx cards is that the boot-up BIOS is lightning fast. For the SAS cards, it takes much longer for the kernel to boot and the drives to detect. This is primarily a consideration for a workstation that you may be turning on and off. For a server that remains always on, this is less of an issue.
 
alamone said:
Another point in favor of the 12xx cards is that the boot-up BIOS is lightning fast. For the SAS cards, it takes much longer for the kernel to boot and the drives to detect.
Click to expand...

My 1280ML (latest firmware, four 3TB Hitachi drives in one RAID 6 raid set with one 6TB volume set) boots in about 95 seconds...if that is "lightning fast", how long does a SAS usually take?
 
iissmart said:
My 1280ML (latest firmware, four 3TB Hitachi drives in one RAID 6 raid set with one 6TB volume set) boots in about 95 seconds...if that is "lightning fast", how long does a SAS usually take?
Click to expand...
The more drives you get hooked up to your card the faster the initialization will be. Right now your controller spends too much time trying to determine whether it has drives attached and they are not communicating for some reason.
 
Does anyone know if it's possible to use the ARC-1880-ix-16 and something like a 1-Port SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 Adapter, http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/AD8788-1.asp to fully populate a 20 bay Norco?

I know that most people use 1880i and a HP SAS expander, but buying the ix16 card in the UK costs practically the same as the 1880i+HP and I would also get the benefit of being able to add additional cache to the card.

Thanks
 
LFletcher said:
Does anyone know if it's possible to use the ARC-1880-ix-16 and something like a 1-Port SFF-8087 to SFF-8088 Adapter, http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sas_cables_adapters/AD8788-1.asp to fully populate a 20 bay Norco?

I know that most people use 1880i and a HP SAS expander, but buying the ix16 card in the UK costs practically the same as the 1880i+HP and I would also get the benefit of being able to add additional cache to the card.

Thanks
Click to expand...

Yea you could do that.
 
Anybody have any clues on how to use the email notifications for raid status and whatnot. I can't figure out what sort of info I need to put in the email setup.
 
PharetH said:
Anybody have any clues on how to use the email notifications for raid status and whatnot. I can't figure out what sort of info I need to put in the email setup.
Click to expand...

This is a little older BIOS but the newest ones work the same way.
arecasmtp.png
 
I see, Do I have to use a local mail server, or can I use something like gmail?

And if it has to be local, do you have one you recommend for Windows Server 08?
 
PharetH said:
I see, Do I have to use a local mail server, or can I use something like gmail?

And if it has to be local, do you have one you recommend for Windows Server 08?
Click to expand...

It can use any SMTP server that your network can reach. It does not need to be local.

Areca does have a problem with the SMTP "username". They do not support usernames with certain special characters in them. Many hosted email services use something like "user+host.com" for the username, and Areca pukes on the "+" character in the name - in fact, they won't even let you enter it.

Because of this, I had to set up a local SMTP server. I used "hmailserver" on a Server2008r2 machine because it was free and simple. Setup was a breeze.
 
The SMTP Feature can be added to Windows Server 2008 via Server Manager in the Features node.
 
I have settled on an areca 1880ix 24 port.
I plan to get 20 2TB hard drives particularly the hitachi 5k3000.
I was thinking of 2 Raid 6s for 16tb each (fine with 4 drives for parity) but was wondering what everyone's thoughts are?
Would such an array take like a week to build? Better to have 3 or 4 smaller arrays?
 
Hm okay it's just i've seen many people post that such arrays take 'several days' to build if they're a certain size.
 
systemlayers said:
Hm okay it's just i've seen many people post that such arrays take 'several days' to build if they're a certain size.
Click to expand...
Make sure you enable the hard drive cache while building the array. This will lower array creation to ~6-9 hours, instead of 2+ days. Set it back to Auto when it's done, though.
 
Is it possible to use smartctl in Linux to probe the S.M.A.R.T. values of an Areca RAID volume, when seen as only one device under /dev?
 
Why not just use the OOB web mgt for this? Dont even need an OS installed.
 
Can anyone confirm a supplier of 1880ix-24 cards that is already shipping the latest revision with the large heat sink covering the entire board?
 
I'm a reseller, but all last orders coming directly through Areca distribution channels were with small heatsinks. Will know it in two days whether I get newer revision as I have a shipment going my way.
Could certainly ask when the newer revision will be available.
 
Please do ask! I received my last two cards from you, but it was some years ago already. Glad to see you are still around. :)
 
madcoder said:
Can anyone confirm a supplier of 1880ix-24 cards that is already shipping the latest revision with the large heat sink covering the entire board?
Click to expand...

I received one from CDW a couple months ago with the large heatsink. It was DOA and was returned.
 
Is there a raid expansion option available for my Areca ARC-1210, it has 4 ports. I'm trying to keep this on low budget, the raid card was free.
 
I'm trying to use smartmontools on Linux to get the SMART values of my Hitachi drives in my RAID6. So far, I've only had success with (what I think is) the first hard drive, by doing:

Code: 
smartctl -a -d areca,1 /dev/sg1

Which gives me SMART values for one of the Hitachi drives. Unfortunately, trying "areca,2 /dev/sg2" and up to my last drive always gives me this error:

Code: 
# smartctl -a -d areca,2 /dev/sg2
smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [x86_64-unknown-linux-gnu] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-10 by Bruce Allen, http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net

Smartctl open device: /dev/sg2 [areca_02] failed: The requested controller is used exclusively by another process!
(e.g. smartctl or smartd)
Please quit the impeding process or try again later...

Has anyone had success pulling SMART values from drives beyond the first port? I'm on a 1280ML. I don't have smartd running in the background.
 
Try using

smartctl -a -d areca,2 /dev/sg1

SG# is the controller ID, so unless you have more than 1 controller it should stay sg1.
To see all of your SCSI devices run

cat /proc/scsi/sg/device_hdr /proc/scsi/sg/devices
 
nitrobass24 said:
Try using

smartctl -a -d areca,2 /dev/sg1

SG# is the controller ID, so unless you have more than 1 controller it should stay sg1.
To see all of your SCSI devices run

cat /proc/scsi/sg/device_hdr /proc/scsi/sg/devices
Click to expand...

Thanks! Works great now that I'm using it correctly :)
 
Hmm seem to be having an issue with one of my volumes.

I have an 1880i dual linked to HP SAS expander.

3x RAIDsets/Volumes
4xWD640/Boot - Shows up fine, boots to Windows
9x7k2000/Data - Does not show up in Windows, Both Raidset and Volume are in Normal State.
7x5k3000/NewData - Shows up fine in Windows.

What could possibly make one of my volumes not even show up in Disk Management?

EDIT:

Just noticed i had conflcting Ch/ID/LUN config. Updated the Lun and im good now.
 
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Still seem to have performance issues when I am Dual-Linked on the 1880i.

7x 5k3000 R5 Init was going to take approx 48hrs.

Unhooked one of the cables and restarted it, and its blazing fast. Approx 5Hrs.

Could it be cause im running 2.02 HP Firmware?
 
Hello,

I have Areca 1680 with 4gb of cache.
How do I know I am really using it, is there a way to tell ?

I know the system display that I do have it, but I want more proof that I am actually benefiting from the 4gb cache.

System Memory 4096MB/533MHz/ECC

Thanks !
 
agentjase said:
I have Areca 1680 with 4gb of cache.
How do I know I am really using it, is there a way to tell ?
Click to expand...

Do a benchmark on it with test file size larger than 4GB. Or a bench in HDTune and you have a huge spike at the beginning of the graph.
 
^ You mean a test file smaller than 4GB.

@agentjase: Try ATTO for starters if you want to see transfer rate of memory, alternately try CrystalDiskMark or HDTune's file bench. As far as 'proof' that you're benefitting from a cache, that's up to your interpretation and dependent on your usage pattern. If the module itself wasn't working then the card wouldn't even POST, so its working. So whether you perceive a benefit depends on what you're using the card for. It's its on smaller, frequently used files then its more noticeable than occasional transfers of large multi-gigabyte sequential files like video. It's also more noticeable if your boot volume is on the areca.

Bottom line, home users that only use raid volumes to store infrequently accessed files like DVD/Bluray libraries aren't really going to benefit from a cache upgrade.
 
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Hi all, I'm looking to join the Areca club in the near future and have a few questions. I'm planning to pair a 24-port 1880ix card with a 24-bay Norco case, eventually filled with 24 2TB Hitachi hard drives, in RAID-6. However, I really can't afford all that hardware along with 24 drives at same time, so I would like to start with 10 drives, gradually expanding the array with 2 drives at a time until I hit 24. Is this possible? Could starting with a 10 drive RAID-6 and expanding 2 at a time, maybe even 1 at a time occasionally, ever present any problems? All drives would be the same 2 TB model, start to finish in the project
I planed to rip and remux my 500+ physical Blu-rays and store them on this unit, and if anything ever went wrong and I lost all my data, I would probably just smash everything to pieces with a sledgehammer. That's why I'm looking at RAID-6 protection, but if many expansions could cause problems (it has to rebuild itself every expansion right?) I might take a different route.

Thanks for any info
 
It's been said many times in many forums, RAID is not a substitute for backups. But I can see where a hammer-fest like something out of Office Space would be very therapeutic.
 
zeroARMY said:
Hi all, I'm looking to join the Areca club in the near future and have a few questions. I'm planning to pair a 24-port 1880ix card with a 24-bay Norco case, eventually filled with 24 2TB Hitachi hard drives, in RAID-6. However, I really can't afford all that hardware along with 24 drives at same time, so I would like to start with 10 drives, gradually expanding the array with 2 drives at a time until I hit 24. Is this possible? Could starting with a 10 drive RAID-6 and expanding 2 at a time, maybe even 1 at a time occasionally, ever present any problems? All drives would be the same 2 TB model, start to finish in the project
I planed to rip and remux my 500+ physical Blu-rays and store them on this unit, and if anything ever went wrong and I lost all my data, I would probably just smash everything to pieces with a sledgehammer. That's why I'm looking at RAID-6 protection, but if many expansions could cause problems (it has to rebuild itself every expansion right?) I might take a different route.

Thanks for any info
Click to expand...

In theory it should be fine, although you will wear your drives out a lot faster by going that route. Also, unless you need that much cache for performance it is cheaper to get an ARC-1880i and an HP SAS expander, that's a few drives right there.
 
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