Dell 2800 Perc4 question

Question

The 2800 is available with a split backplane. What I find extreamly odd is that the Perc/2800 combination does not seem to support any type of duplexing. E.G. mirror across channels. According to the web, the Raid 10 requires all drives be on the same side of the backplane. If that is true, then the 2800/Perc 4 is incapable of mission critical roles OR the Per4 can mirror across channels but that is not an off-the-web configuration. I don't care if Dell supports it or not. Furthermore, I find no intelligent documentation on the Perc4 that says one way or the other. What I want to know is if I can do a RAID 10 with the 2800 where the stripe sets on each channel are duplexed? After two weeks and several salesman, Dell cannot answer that question one way or the other.

Austin_Bike · Answer

PERC 4/DC and PERC 4e/DC and PERC 4/Di all have 2 channels so you can do RAID 10.

JToering · Answer

Specifically, will the controller do it?

E.G.
Backplane 1 = 2 73Gig 10K drives striped connected to channel one on controller
Backplane 2 = 2 73Gig 10K drives striped connected to channel two on controller
Duplex channels on controller, not the OS

Thanks,
Jack T.

JToering · Answer

Another thing that I find very odd is that a split backplane, it requires 4 drives to do a Raid 1??? What would that be?

VaSiKuN · Answer

...or buy a daughter card, which splits your backplane in 2. Problem solved!!

JToering · Answer

>Problem solved!!<

The 2800 can be ordered with a split buss and the proper number of drives. Ordering Raid 10 1X8 and then adding a daugher card to split simply complicates the process since once you move one of the stripe sets to another channel, you've broken the raid. The question is, will the Perc4 mirror across channels like the DPT and others have done since the mid-90's, or does it rely on the operating system?

Thanks,
Jack T.

PowerEdge Hardware General

Dell 2800 Perc4 question

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