Re: Age old question: FBSD vs Linux

Once upon a time, [email protected] <[email protected]> said:
> Actually, 2 age-old questions.  FreeBSD vs. Linux revisited and software 
> vs hardware RAID level 1.

For #1: use what you know unless it doesn't meet your needs, then find
something that's close to what you know.  I run Linux (RHEL and Fedora)
everywhere, but I've been running Linux almost since the beginning and
Red Hat versions of Linux for about 13 years.  I think Linux works fine
for just about all server uses, but I wouldn't say specifically that it
is "better" than FreeBSD.

For #2: it depends.  Software RAID (on Linux) is typically easier to
monitor and manage while the system is up than hardware RAID.  You can
easily add and remove drives, create "broken" RAID mirrors (mirror
missing a drive) during upgrades, etc.  Hardware RAID almost always
requires you to install somebody's tools that aren't part of any
distribution (because of licensing), and some changes can't be made with
some controllers while the system is up.  Linux software RAID can even
resize a RAID5/6 array on the fly now (if you also use logical volume
management, you can add drives, grow the RAID, expand the LV, and expand
the filesystem to add more space, all without a reboot or a umount).

However, hardware RAID can have battery-backed cache, so you can get
better write performance (especially on RAID 5 and 6, where write
performance is poor).  Also, like somebody else said, you are not
typically going to be able to plug in more than 4 drives without getting
a RAID card anyway.

Bringing #1 and #2 together: if you go with hardware RAID, it may be
easier to find management/monitoring tools for Linux than for FreeBSD,
and Linux supports pretty much all the hardware RAID cards (FreeBSD may
as well, I just don't know).

-- 
Chris Adams <[email protected]>
Systems and Network Administrator - HiWAAY Internet Services
I don't speak for anybody but myself - that's enough trouble.
-- 
Eat sushi frequently. - Avi
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