Software RAID?

[Paddy]

*&%^$£"!!!!!

I've got Server 2003 running beautifully.
Web/mail/ftp/multimedia you name it.
I've got an Adaptec 2400A 4 channel ATA 100 RAID card that is quite nice, but it keeps 'timing out'! Any large transfer of data seems to 'swamp' it causing the whole array and windows to die. On consulting the Adaptec website, it is evident that the card has no specific 2003 driver, nor will it have, so I am at a loss.

Having removed my hardware SCSI RAID card because I couldn't get the ProLiant to stay happy with it, I resorted to software RAID 1.

I intend to remove one of the RAID 1 drives and install 2000 Server SP3, if the adaptec card is happier there, then it should simply be a case of mirroring the drive and installing filezilla/apache/php/mysql/mercurymail as a service.

Does 2000 server support software RAID?

Has anyone used one of these 2004A cards?

Should I just sell the proliant and pick up a cheap box and fill it with hard drives?

Should I start shaving my palms?

Should I grate my onions before making a cheese and onion sandwich?

Why is it that the bin men are happy to take grass cuttings, on a recycling day and provided they are correctly bagged, but they wont take them lobbed in the bin (in said bag)?

Should I forget about all of this and concentrate on constructing grammatically correct sentences?

Or how about learning to spell?

Did anyone mention cheese???

[Dilitante1]

Does 2000 server support software RAID?

NO, it has basic and dynamic disking.....you'll need the 3rd party drivers for the card to make that work
i would suggest OS on separate drive and leave array for the apps/storage you want on it

NT 4.0 had mirroring (RAID1) and you had to break the mirrors b4 upgrading to Win2k.

[Paddy]

In that case I really should stick to Server 2003.
I just don't see how I can get the storage I need...
perhaps a cheap PCI ATA controller and software raid the disks?

What would you suggest?

[Dilitante1]

Build a 2k box and have 2k3 dump to it as needed, that way the drivers that ARE out there can be used and have a stable box (hopefully)

how much ram is on the 2400? can you bump it up?

[Paddy]

only 32mb... I'll try 2000 server tomorrow. I don't think it will mess things up too much

[Marshmallowman]

edit : its not a highpoint chipset device...

I know win2k used to support variuos software raid configs out of the box, but I don't know about win2k3.

[spadnos]

*cough* Linux *cough*

[Paddy]

yeah linux would be the way forward, but i've spend ages configuring apache/php/mysql/pop3/smtp/imap4/webmail/ftp etc...

[Paddy]

ok. So what is the cheapst and easiest way to setup networkd file storage?

I want the capacity of ~750GB so 4x250 in a RAID 5 array would be prefereable.
It's a shame SCSI disks are so small and expensive otherwise the ProLiant would be perfect for the job....

[Paddy]

bump

[Dilitante1]

you have drivers for the card for win2k, so setup the win2k and dump to the arrayed drives.....or do you not have enough parts for 2 PCs?

[Paddy]

The arrayed drives are now done in software.
I could remove disk0 of the RAID1 array install 2000 server using the SCSI RAID controller, if everything works, then simply mirror the drive. If it doesn't then it should be simply a case of formatting disk1 and reinserting disk0 so that 2003 server can rebuild the array.

I do have enough components to make a second PC - i'd have to buy a new case, but that'd be it... although i was planning on selling my Asus A7n8x-e mobo, Barton 3200+, 2x512MB DDR on ebay. If I am not going to get much for those three items, then I guess I should keep them....