Total storage size exceeded licensed storage capacity before SoftRAID can be config

[Rick01]

Hi, I am trying to configure 3 x 400 IDE drives as Soft RAID5 but I am never able to add the drives to the softRAID configuration as it is showing:

Warning
Total storage size exceeded licensed storage capacity.

Surely in RAID5 configuration this would be a volume of 379 GB x (n-1) = 758GB

Please can we find a solution to this as it is spoiling an otherwise brilliant product.

Regards
Rick

[To-L]

The software is seeing the total RAW capacity 1.2GB

[Rick01]

Hi Torpedo, yes I realise that is what is happening but surely it should be the formatted capacity (i.e. Once the SoftRAID volume has been built = 758 GB) that it should use as the defining or limiting size factor?

As an interim, I will use an Adaptec PCI-X SATA RAID controller with 3 x 500 GB drives in RAID5 with a 4th 500GB drive as a hot spare all defined and setup in RAID BIOS which will present the OS with a single 1TB volume.

The previous Open-E DSS Lite had a 2TB ceiling up until 31st Jan 2008 where it was dropped back down to 1TB so it can not be a huge issue to move the limit. I understand the commercial reasons behind the decrease in capacity but it is spoiling an otherwise brilliant product

I just think the check should be made at the time the Volume is created not at the time the Hard drives are detected.

What about having the ability to add a spare disk for "HOT SPARE" that is not used or included in any volume until a drive fails. All of this functionality is already available in the Linux softraid kernel.

[beng]

Well, what do you expect for free?
Seriously, you have done exactly the right thing. Using a hardware raid card is the best idea.
It may seem ludicrous now, but rewind two or three years and 1TB would seem like a massive amount so lets give OpenE credit for an iSCSI 1TB target.

The best idea is to use hardware raid anyway, software raid cards are such a PITA, I've had so many of them suddenly decide to drop their config and present two drives from a raid1 config <sigh>.
Your point is valid RE: 758GB, but I guess OpenE need to draw the line somewhere...no sense in giving away the farm. 1TB Raw capacity is really enough to demonstrate the commercial viability of the product? If you want to save money, go for OpenFiler, but if you want a solid product OpenE is a good choice.
Hot spares are really only useful if you have multiple raids, otherwise Raid6 (or 5E) is a better idea, why have a drive sitting idle :-) The Adaptec 5805 is my current favourite...

Cheers Ben.