I know you asked for Linux,

Shaggy — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 17:53:26 +0000

I know you asked for Linux, but FreeBSD typically does a good job of supporting SCSI/SAS hardware RAID that come in the Compaqs...

There may be an IDE controller onboard to avoid the raid driver problem, and the expensive drive problem...

Cheers,
Shaggy.

I had two Compaq Proliant

pr0gr4mm3r — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 18:35:18 +0000

I had two Compaq Proliant ML370 servers with 6 SCSI drives in RAID 0. I tried to install Ubuntu 7.10 server, but the installation wouldn't work all the way through. The latest version that would install was 6.06, but then I could upgrade it all the way to the latest version (go figure). I ended up giving them away on Cragslist because 1) the only added benefit compared to using an old desktop is extra noise & heat, and 2) the six (OLD) hard drives put together is less than my laptop's HDD, and it only takes one of them to fail and trash the array and all data on them.

If you are specifically wanting to tinker with the server class hardware, then I would recommend CentOS, even though I don't like their package management system. I think that's the distro that works best with RAID systems. If you are looking to tinker with server class software, just use an old desktop PC.

I still have a Netfinity 5600 in my closet after I upgraded the system at my church, but with the high power consumption and noise level, I probably won't use it for anything useful.