[Beowulf] Supermicro H8SSL-R10 versus H8SSL-i motherboards,, Broadcom SATA chips

[Maurice Hilarius]

Bruce Allen wrote:
> On Wed, 11 Jan 2006, Maurice Hilarius wrote:
>
>>> http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opteron/HT1000/H8SSL-R10.cfm
>>>
>>>
>>> Has anyone on the list seen or used a Supermicro H8SSL-R10 motherboard?
>
>> We too are waiting for SMicro to release the Serverworks boards with
>> **functioning** RAID on them. For example we are using their 1020P-T
>> server, but for now have to use a 3rd party card, such as the 3Ware
>> 9550 to get this working.
>>
>> As I understand it the problem is something in the SWorks/Broadcom chip.
>
> OK.  Thanks for confirming this problem.
>
Some good news: There are now new BIOS revs for these Serverworks
chipset boards enabling the RAID.
WE have not yet tested it, but that is coming soon.
>> As far as "RAID" goes, from what I understand the SWorks is still a
>> "FRAID" device, so I think your idea about using mdadm or similar
>> software RAID makes good sense for a RAID1 scenario. About the only
>> drawback that counts (to some) would be the lack of disk hot-swap
>> capability.
> Do you know if the dmraid tools
> http://people.redhat.com/~heinzm/sw/dmraid/ can be used with the
> H8SSL-i or if this only work with the R10 style RAID?
>
> Cheers,
>     Bruce
>
We use madadm when using on-board interfaces, and that works very well.


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With our best regards,


Maurice W. Hilarius        Telephone: 01-780-456-9771
Hard Data Ltd.  FAX:       01-780-456-9772
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