Kit Halsted wrote: > So, the latest uptime thread reminded me that I also have a server > with a shamefully long uptime & I really need to replace it with > something a little better. I blew my savings replacing my 4-year-old > laptop in November, then went deeper into debt repairing my bike > after someone knocked it over just before xmas, so my hardware budget > consists of a jar of loose change. > > Fortunately, I have the discarded carcasses of several > formerly-impressive servers to pick over and my performance needs for > this box would barely strain a P-II. > > I would like RAID in the new server, & there's an Adaptec 2400A I2o > card with 4 disks in one of the server carcasses. AFAICT, this card > is still supported in spite of Adaptec's attitude. My question is > this: would it be ill-advised to use this card going forward, or is > it likely to remain supported? > > Thanks, > -Kit
A bit of googling on "I2O" indicates that it is basically a dead standard, no new cards are likely to be produced, so the "Adaptec Attitude" problem really doesn't apply here. This card and these drivers work or don't work as well as they are going to, most likely. >From memory, the Adaptec issue was more that they shipped a lot of buggy cards and no info to help the driver work around the bugs, so it got to be a nightmare trying to figure out what version of which cards worked and which didn't. That doesn't apply with the I2O drivers. Keep in mind, if that's your only 2400A card, if you build yourself a wonderful RAID5 system and the adapter fails at some time in the future, you will be hoping you had a good backup. In my mind, that's a bigger concern. Nick.
