RAID Controllers and Linux: Ugh!

[Warren Luebkeman]

Since we are on the subject of servers, I am now dealing with an issue that I 
always face when using a new server configuration:  Is the RAID Card 
supported in Linux?  I usually like to go with Adaptec RAID cards because 
they provide Linux driver sources so we can compile the driver ourselves.  

This Intel board I'm looking at has a very impressive RAID controller built 
right into it.  However, they only provide drivers for Redhat and Suse.  Our 
system is based on Debian/Ubuntu, and we use a different kernel.  So it would 
seem I cannot use this RAID controller, even though it has "Linux" support.

I guess this is more of a frustrated rant rather than a question.  It looks 
like I will have to use the Adaptec card, which I have no problem with, 
except that its about $400.  Just seems silly (and incredibly annoying) to 
me.

I'm wondering if you know of any hardware companies that sell server 
configurations that have REAL Linux support, which basically means all the 
hardware will work with any Linux distro, vs. just Redhat and Suse?  It would 
be great to be able to order a server and not have to spend hours determining 
if all the hardware is actually supported.  






-- 
Warren Luebkeman
Founder, COO
Resara LLC
1.888.357.9195
www.resara.com