[geeks] Poweredge 2400, SCSI details

[Charles Shannon Hendrix]

Fri, 16 Jun 2006 @ 13:27 -0500, Phil Brutsche said:

> Charles Shannon Hendrix wrote:
> > Does anyone know if any of the Dell Poweredge 2400 servers had their
> > RAID controller built into the motherboard?
> > 
> > I ask because I found some of them for sale which list a Pertec RAID
> > controller, but there isn't one in any of the 64-bit PCI slots.
> 
> The RAID controller can be either integrated or in a PCI slot, the
> integrated RAID is cheaper so most people go that route.
> 
> The intergated SCSI can be turned into PERC SCSI RAID by a "RAID key"
> (the RAID functionality is present on all systems, but the key is needed
> to enable it) and the appropriate ECC SDRAM (for the RAID controller
> cache) in the appropriate slot.  Unfortunately a battery module for the
> RAID cache was an extra cost item back then, and most don't have it.

Ah... you mean like a license key?

That's insane on hardware.

The listings I've seen for machines that apparently have it onboard have
so far always said it comes with a "RAID KEY" and "N MB raid/cache RAM",
and I never knew what they meant by key.

Is the onboard RAID a good controller?  I don't really know if I'd use
the hardware RAID or not.

Linux and FreeBSD appear to have drivers for it, so I suppose it would
be OK.  Not sure about NetBSD or Solaris.

> I have a PE2400 here with most of the requisite hardware, so I can take
> pictures and show you what to look for.

Thanks.

You like the machine pretty well?


-- 
shannon "AT" widomaker.com -- ["The object of war is not to die for your
country but to make the other bastard die for his." -- General George S.
Patton]