Array Controller Question?

[JAguilar]

I have a Proliant 800 w/a 500Mhz CPU. It doesn't have a RAID controller,and I need to rebuild it w/a RAID controller. What is the newest RAID controller that I can use in it,I am running NW5.x on it. I have an adaptec 3210S that I can use,but usually use the Compaq Smart Array Product Line for Raid cards. Please advise.

thanks,
Jose A. Aguilar

[Lance Brown]

You can usually use any RAID card in a machine. There are some platforms that you would have a problem with; X86 is not one of them.

When you say newest, any particular brand or SCSI version you want? The newest would have the U320 bus rather then the U160 the card you have now is. How much speed do you need? What is the budget? Do you want battery backup, how much cache, etc? Your current card is fine.

The drivers and support software for your current card is here:
http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/support/drivers_by_product.html?sess=no&language=English+US&cat=/Product/ASR-3210S

It has all of the operating systems on one page; Netware is at the bottom.

[JAguilar]

The drives I am going to implement are (3) 36Gb IBM Ultra160 Ultrastar. I think I may need to exchange it for a Compaq Smart Array Controller. I would like to support the Ultra160 if possible and have a min. of 32Mb Cache.

Thanks,
Jose

[Lance Brown]

You current card has what you are looking for. Is the server under a support contract? If not, there is little reason to use the Compaq controller. It does the same thing as the one you have now, but costs more. The 3210S can support up to 256MB of cache and is an U160 card.