Onboard Intel ICH8/9 RAID 5 problems

SeriousPigeon

SeriousPigeon

SeriousPigeon

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1 Aug 2003
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I have 2 RAID arrays. One is a RAID0 on an ICH9R Intel onboard controller (ASUS Formula), the other is a RAID5 on an ICH8R (ASUS Commando).

Both exhibit random lockups, when either trying to access the same file for different operations or performing fast transfers or operations on large files (>15GB). Once the lockup occurs the machine needs to be rebooted. The RAID5 array will then perform a verify and repair operation (which takes around 12 hours to complete and severly cripples the performance of the machine).
The RAID0 array just reboots normally.

The lockups are few and far between and have never resulted in loss of data, but nevertheless quite annoying.

Am I expecting too much from my onboard RAID controllers or am I doing something wrong?
 
Are you running the latest Intel chipset and RAID drivers?

To be honest they are essentially software RAID, only using a BIOS pre-loader so I wouldn't expect the best performance on something like RAID5 which is pretty intensive. But I would expect total reliability and not random lockups. That suggests something is amiss...

If you're getting problems you can probably pick up a second hand hardware controller for reasonable money on a well known auction site.
 
I had thought that initially it was something wrong with the motherboard, but a 2nd motherboard showing the same symptons effectively ruled that out. I am using different hard drives on the 2 controllers as well. Drivers are all up to date. For everyday use it is stable, it is just under certain circumstances that I get problems.

I am mulling over the idea of gettting a Synology CS-407e and putting 4 drives in that in a RAID5 configuration and abandoning the onboard RAID5 setup I have got in my machine.
 
Umm, I would have a look at the stability of the power supply first to rule that out, and then the sata cables. I have a twelve drive array myself and had a lot of strange problems that were down to a sometimes 'defective' cable. Pretty mush all of the normal home NAS solutions are painfully slow, and I am sure that there will be a simple solution to the problems that you are facing. IT is also worth spending £15 on a 3114 card and trying that.
 
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