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From: Dave Cramer <pg@fastcrypt.com>
Subject: Re: Dell Hardware Recommendations
Date: Mon, 13 Aug 2007 20:59:26 -0400
To: Vivek Khera <vivek@khera.org>


On 13-Aug-07, at 9:50 AM, Vivek Khera wrote:

>
> On Aug 10, 2007, at 4:36 PM, Merlin Moncure wrote:
>
>> I'm not so sure I agree.  They are using LSI firmware now (and so is
>> everyone else).  The servers are well built (highly subjective, I
>> admit) and configurable.  I have had some bad experiences with IBM
>> gear (adaptec controller though), and white box parts 3ware, etc.  I
>> can tell you that dell got us the storage and the server in record
>> time
>>
>> do agree on adaptec however
>
> Ok, perhaps you got luckier... I have two PowerVault 220 rack  
> mounts with U320 SCSI drives in them. With an LSI 320-2X  
> controller, it *refuses* to recognize some of the drives (channel 1  
> on either array).  Dell blames LSI, LSI blames dell's backplane.   
> This is consistent across multiple controllers we tried, and two  
> different Dell disk arrays.  Dropping the SCSI speed to 160 is the  
> only way to make them work.  I tend to believe LSI here.
>
This is the crux of the argument here. Perc/5 is a dell trademark.  
They can ship any hardware they want and call it a Perc/5.

Dave
> The Adaptec 2230SLP controller recognizes the arrays fine, but  
> tends to "drop" devices at inopportune moments.  Re-seating dropped  
> devices starts a rebuild, but the speed is recognized as "1" and  
> the rebuild takes two lifetimes to complete unless you insert a  
> reboot of the system in there.  Totally unacceptable.  Again,  
> dropping the scsi rate to 160 seems to make it more stable.
>
>

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