classiccmp server hardware

[Jay West]

Jochen wrote...
> Those Promise "RAID" cards don't do hardware RAID. They handle RAID
> entirely in software, by there own BIOS for booting / DOS and via a
I don't *THINK* that is true, at least as a generalization. There may be 
some low end cards from promise that don't really do hardware raid, and 
there may be promise chips built into some motherboards that don't really do 
hardware raid, but - my experience is that most of their ata raid cards 
actually do hardware raid. Can someone clarify for sure?

> As you are running FreeBSD: What about vinum(4)???
> The machine should be fast enough to handle RAID1 in software. No
> problem with the Promise BIOS stuff, no cost for an extra PCI card.
I won't do OS-land raid. Doing any raid level in the OS is simply... brain 
dead. For the same reasons that I refuse to use a WINmodem in a windows 
machine. It's inherently bad engineering to waste/degrade the main systems 
cpu for this kind of thing.

> If you want real hardware RAID look for a 3ware card.
I'll look at 3ware, but like I said I was under the impression many (most) 
promise cards did do real hardware raid.

Jay West