Moving hard drive in raid array from onboard to hba

L

lazy7689

Weaksauce
Joined
Nov 9, 2010
Messages
73
I currently have my raid arrays set up where some of the hard drives are connected to the onboard sata ports. The raid array is a raid6 software raid done using linux/mdadm. As I have outgrown the capabilities of my motherboard, I was wondering whether my array would be negatively impacted if I moved the drives away from the onboard ports to an hba.

Any help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.
 
You should be ok since you're using Linux MDADM. Last I checked you should be able to move between different controllers with little issues.
 
As long as the HBA you use can pass the drives through untouched, you should have no problem. Some HBAs (or RAID cards in JBOD mode) may write some metadata to the drives, even in pass-thru mode. Avoid them!
 
As a more complete picture of what's going on, it will be connected through AOC-SASLP-MV8 -> HP SAS Expander -> Norco 4224 backplane.

I've already purchased the hardware so I hope it works without a hitch because I don't want to have to rebuild the array.

Thanks for the responses
 
I'm not sure how good the linux drivers are for the -MV8 card. I remember seeing some reports of issues in this forum some time ago, but it is possible they have been fixed now.
 
I've had the MV8 for a while now and it's been running without any problems. The only real additions are the expander card and norco. I wouldn't move the drives off of the onboard if it seems like I don't have an option with the norco.
 
Since you are using software RAID, you can move it to another mobo or controller card with ease. However, moving it to a controller card won't net you much performance, if any.

Do remember that there is more overhead with RAID 6, and if you want more performance, make sure encryption is disabled (if you can afford it), and that the bus for your SATA ports (be it mobo or add-in card) is not a bottleneck.

If you do get an add in card, make sure it is PCI-E 4x (1x is kind of a bottleneck) or PCI-X (64-bit 66MHz).

What kind of read/write speeds do you get at the moment?
 
Red Falcon said:
Since you are using software RAID, you can move it to another mobo or controller card with ease. However, moving it to a controller card won't net you much performance, if any.

Do remember that there is more overhead with RAID 6, and if you want more performance, make sure encryption is disabled (if you can afford it), and that the bus for your SATA ports (be it mobo or add-in card) is not a bottleneck.

If you do get an add in card, make sure it is PCI-E 4x (1x is kind of a bottleneck) or PCI-X (64-bit 66MHz).

What kind of read/write speeds do you get at the moment?
Click to expand...

I'm not looking for performance gains, per se. I just outgrew my existing case and needed a case that could hold more drives. I went with a norco 4224 for it's price and capacity and there's no real option of plugging my drives directly into the onboard as a result of the backplanes (I guess I could remove the backplanes but that would just be a pain in the neck).

iirc, the aoc-saslp-mv8 is pci-e 4x.

Not too sure about my read/write speeds. I'm not too familiar w/ linux outside of the month or two of reading up for me to get comfortable with mdadm, samba shares and general (read, basic) usage of linux so I don't even what utilities to use to check. This is purely a file server (90% media) so performance hasn't really been a concern of mine. If you want me to, i'd be more than happy to run some tests for you if you're interested, provided I'm provided with a little bit of guidance.
 
Awesome, well that controller will work well for you. Since you aren't looking for performance, then moving to a new case/mobo will work out great and software RAID 6 is a good option to use.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top