NASLite Network Attached Storage

Hi,

I found an old post with similar problem but no idea how/if it was solved.

System
HP Compaq dc7600 minitower
250G drive, on MB, as boot/configuration and additional storage.
2 x 500G drives setup as RAID 1, using the controller BIOS setup. Card is Highpoint RocketRaid 1740, which is shown on supported hardware list.

Problem
NL list all drives as seperate, Disk-0, Disk-1 & Disk-2. Disk-0 & 1 are the 500G drives in the RAID array which I expect would appear as a single drive. Should the RAID array appear as a single drive? If not how do I configure NL to use the array as a single drive?

Latest NASLite-M2, 1.66 12-2011
All other setup has gone ok
Log file attached, (txt file with zip extension, change ext to .txt to open)

Any help or ideas?

Regards
Andrew

A little digging reveals what I thought.

http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/highpoint_rocketraid_1740_2300/7.htm

These are not really true hardware RAID cards and as such use the system CPU to handle the actual RAID functionality that would otherwise be done by an ASIC or a CPU by true RAID cards.

The function you are getting from the cards is all you are going to get. Essentially they are just expensive SATAII cards where NASLite is concerned.

Mike

??

This device is specifically listed in supported hardware, hence the reason I bought it. It is clearly advertised as a RAID card, so my understanding was that it was supported as a RAID card. It is supported by Windows, Linux and FreeBSD, which again led me to believe it was hardware based due to being OS agnostic. In hindsight all bad assumptions on my part, but doesn't change the feeling that I've been jibbed.

This is frustrating, and getting expensive. Server Elements markets NASLite as a low cost high performance option to commercial NASs. By the time I go through several RAID cards to see which one NL is happy to use I may as well have just bought a Home Office NAS from local computer shop.

Do you know of a reliable resource that identifies full hardware cards so I can confirm compatibility before buying? Please don't just recommend 3ware. If the guys at SE only want us to use 3ware, then say so up front.

I'm upgrading from previous version and have been very happy so far. I hope this continues as I do think NL is a great product.

Andrew

It is fairly easy to be sure to have a real RAID card: They cost a lot Anything below 100€ is not a hardware RAID card (and 100€ is a low limit!)

If you need RAID, you'll need hardware RAID, to find a card, post the informations you have on the card and you'll get answers. The best way is to parse the forum and look for RAID cards that are known to work and buy one

Robby

Thanks for the reply, if I continue down the NL path I'll make sure to check around before proceeding.

Also note that I spent some time on the forums and am well aware that cheap cards are no good. The 1740 was by no means cheap at AUD$185, certainly not in the $1000's of dollars like some cards, but then if I was prepared to pay > $500 for just a RAID card, why not get a NAS solution ready to go, just add drives? What is the point of NL if I have to spend a lot to make it work? I'm not trying to be nasty, maybe I've missed the point entirely, but I would like to know the value of NL if we remove the price as a feature?

Andrew

All this frustration could be avoided by just adding a small asterix, or similar, to those cards on the long and painstakingly detailed list of all cards supported, to indicate that this card is known to be hardware RAID. It would no doubt save lots of people time, energy and anxiety. I for one do not have time to look through every topic in the forum to check if my RAID card is hardware or not, particularly when the forum search engine doesn't support queries like "RAID"

Andrew

Hi Andrew.

In fact, the price puts the card on the hardware type RAID. You you boot to the card's BIOS ? Often, before or just after the motherboard BIOS, you hit a key and enter the RAID card BIOS. You may look around there in order to setup your RAID.

If NL sees the disks individually, and the card is a Hardware RAID, than the RAID settings in the BIOS of the card are not correct.

Regards

N.B. Oups, I hadn't followed Mike's link. I don't know what you'll be able to do with the card. Try anyway to see if you have a BIOS on the card. If you can access it, you may have some luck.

Robby

Thanks Rob

Yes I can boot to BIOS and have setup a RAID array from the BIOS. My own research has now confirmed that all of the RocketRaid series below 3000 require sw support. Maybe it's some kind of hybrid.

Anyway I'm now in the process of checking what cards are available from suppliers, then checking if card/chipset appears in hw list, then looking for reviews to confirm if hw raid or not.

Regards
Andrew

LSI and 3Ware both make very good cards and these are on Ebay all day in the $100.00 USD range. Most of the LSI cards are going to be a little more aimed at the enterprise were as the 3Ware cards, at least the lower end will be in the prosumer/small office environment arena. Adaptec use to be good but their customer service really blows goats now and they make you pay for help very early on so I steer away from them.

If you are just looking to mirror one drive to another then that is built into NL from the start, no RAID needed. The only real advantage to the mirrored drive off of a RAID card is that the reads are about 70% faster with both drives working properly and carrying the same data.

I do have to say that it would be great if there were some way to get the Linux driver module loaded so you could use a soft RAID card. The problem is that then the issues in the forums would expand exponentially because most users would simply not be able to implement the RAID properly. Add in that there are so many different cards and drivers and ways of handling the install/configuration and... Well I hope you get the idea and understand.

Tony and Ralph are just two guys. This is not their primary business. They only have so much time for the constant issues that arise from the likes of Microsoft and Apple constantly breaking compatibility in their software.

Some of the above is speculation to be sure but I bet it isn't far off of the mark.

Post a card you are interested in in the future and we will all try and answer your question.

Last, like it or not the 3Ware cards are out there in droves and rather cheap too. 9500S/8 cards with cables can be had for around $30.00 USD. These are TRUE hardware RAID cards and they will more than meet any requirements you could have. A simple search on Ebay with the term 3ware will give you several pages.

Mike