[KLUG Members] any experience with Debian Sarge & Dell 39160 SCSI controller?

[Adam Tauno Williams]

> I'm looking at replacing an old P3 server with a new Dell 2850. I want
> to setup a raid 5 on it and as I've never setup raid on Linux before I
> wanted to see if anyone has had any problems with the 39160 SCSI
> controller this box seems to have with debian sarge? I have 2 other

Are you sure it isn't a relabeled Adaptec?  Because 39160 is an Adaptec card
number.  If so I wouldn't use this card,  HostRAID is crap.  Adaptec's 
HostRAID
support for Linux is officially "minimally tested".  So if you do go with this
box, and it is an Adaptec controller, you are better off not using the RAID
part and just using MD (software RAID).

Of course,  if you buy a "real" server (aka IBM) with a ServeRAID card
everything will just work, the monitoring software will work,  and you'll be
able to query drive status (online, defunct, etc...) remotely.  And if a part
fails you'll get good support often times even after the warranty 
period.  With
Dell you get the joy of hours on support running absolutely silly diagnostic
crap before they believe you that a part failed, then you have to wait for one
of their little trolls to show up with the part.   Dell makes crappy PCs, and
they should stick to that - their server support is a completely 
laughable. What good is RAID if, when a drive fails,  I can't get the 
*^&*@^@ OEM to
next-day air me a new drive?  And I don't want to take my server down to run
your *^*(&@^&*@ &*^*&@^(@ ^&@&*^@*& (*@^*&@^  (&@^*&@^*&@^ diagnostic 
CD - that
is the whole point of (@^*&^@! (#&* RAID isn't it?

> debian machines on the network, but they're small boxes running backup
> web/dns/squid services and this machine is my main email/web/spam
> filtering box so I really want to beef up the hardware while I have the
> chance with this new box.
> I can't seem to find much via google for debian and the 39160, the
> debian hardware list just says the kernel comes with support for most
> SCSI devices, and I can't seem to find any sort of equivalent to the
> linux laptops site for servers.