Parts List
3. Parts List
The hardware for this do-it-yourself project is shown in Table 1. To keep this project simple, there are only two hardware options: the default configuration with the motherboard's built-in 10/100 Ethernet, and a secondary configuration with gigabit Ethernet. If you're a good shopper, you may be able to beat my cost, especially if you use a retired computer that's just gathering dust in your closet.
By way of comparison, Buffalo Technology's 1 TB TeraStation is selling on the web for around $650 and the "Pro" version is about $230 more.
| Component | Cost | |
|---|---|---|
| RAID Controller | LSI Logic MegaRAID i4 (ATA) | $80 to $160 on www.ebay.com |
| CPU | Sempron 2200+ | $59 (for 2600+; 2200+ is no longer available) |
| Motherboard | ECS 741GX-M | $110 |
| RAM | 512 MB DDR 400 SDRAM
Running at 266 MHz |
$40 |
| Power Supply | CoolerMaster RS-450-ACLX 450W | $80 |
| Ethernet 1 | 100 MB on ECS 741GX-M | - (included in motherboard) |
| Ethernet 2 | 32 bit 10/100/1000
Trendnet TEG-PCITXR |
$19 |
| Hard Drives | 4 300 Gigabyte 7200 ATA IDE | 4 x $105 = $420 |
| Case | Cheapest @ CompUSA | $30 |
| CD ROM to Boot | ASUS 52x | $10 |
| OS | Ubuntu 6.06 Desktop | $0 |
| Total System Cost | $829 - 928 | |
Table 1
For this project, the most important thing to be sure of is that the motherboard does not mask interrupt 19. Masking interrupt 19 prevents the
The RAM for this system is 512 MB of DDR400 SDRAM running at 266 MHz. The ECS motherboard theoretically supports 333 MHz, but I've never been able to get memory to run that fast on this board. The power supply is a 450 watt CoolerMaster model. A power level of 450 W is more than is needed - each of my drives draws about 9 watts of power - but because you are building a RAID 5 array, you will need a lot of power connectors. A 450 W supply usually has the two extra power connectors cables needed for a 4 drive array.
I used Ubuntu 6.06 because it installs beautifully. My favorite build of Linux is ClarkConnect, but it would not install on the LSI Logic MegaRAID i4 controller. This is because ClarkConnect is based on Fedora 4, which pulled support for the MegaRAID i4 cards last year.
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An excellent article. I have been trying to setup something like this. I just went thru 2 weeks of trying to get software raid 5 to work in Ubuntu. I searched the net for how-to or step by step instructions and could only find bits and pieces. Nothing worked. Linux users need to remember that us wanna bees don't know even the slightest of commands! In every article I found, they assumed you knew "some" basic commands. I tried reading and learning, but I couldn't find a good learner for linux. Anyway, having decided to do a hardware raid 5 with Ubuntu desktop seemed like my only hope. Then I find this article here, and it is exactly the way EVERY article should be done, step by step, assuming the reader knows nothing. This article is VERY good and thorough! Congratulations Benjamin Webb, you did a great job! -Blueuniform
interesting article, but the beauty of linux software RAID5 is that an array rebuild will happen automatically when you replace the faulty drive (well you have to tell it that you replaced the drive using mdadm). you can even simulate a failure and then watch it rebuild the array to get an idea of how your system will respond under different scenarios. here's a snippet of what needs to be done to replace the missing drive/partition:
Rebuilding:
To remove the failed partition and add the new parition:
mdadm /dev/mdX -r /dev/sdYZ -a /dev/sdYZ
where X is the array number (0,1,etc) and YZ is your disk/partition (sda3 for example)
e.g.:
mdadm /dev/md0 -r /dev/sde3 -a /dev/sdr3
(where sde3 is the 3rd partition on your faulty drive, and sdr3 is the 3rd partition on the new drive)
Watch the automatic reconstruction run with:
watch -n1 cat /proc/mdstat
I understand that people fear the console commands. It can be a bit scary at first. But mdadm is pretty simple when you're used to console apps and a little bit of linux. It's mostly just mdadm and such. I currently run two software raids with 7 and 5 disks.
i believe his concerns with software raid5 were not just the rebuilding points. i believe he liked the fact that if the os drive took a crap, he could take the card and array and move it to any operating computer and it would power up and work. if you lose the operating system that wrote the software raid array, you have lost the array.