Adding RAID5 to my linux box

[idea]

I feel what I want out of this server is simple but before I make any assumptions I wanted to ask you guys for advice. I don't want to get too fancy and get myself in trouble.

I have been playing with linux (slackware w/ 2.6) for a few years now. It still makes me nervous when trying new things, especially disk stuff since its so easy to lose it all. The server was built out of spare parts and assorted hard drives (with no raid). I host about 900GB on it with samba, ftp, and http services.

The 900gb is 95% filled so it is time to increase space. I am taking this opportunity to redo the entire file system with RAID5. I plan on 5x 320GB SATA drives leaving me with 1.28TB usable space including peace of mind if a disk fails.

I am aware I need to purchase a PCI SATA controller with 8 ports. This leaves me room to add another 320GB or two when 1.28TB gets filled.

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Now the questions...

Should there be a separate OS drive? I got a spare 80gb IDE.
What is the best 8 port SATA controller for the money?
Is there a chipset I should be looking for that plays well with linux?
Any other advice for me before I screw up and lose 900GB of stuff?

 

[nervegrind3r]

not sure about linux, but I just bought a highpoint rocketraid 2220 from newegg for about $250. Im pretty sure it has linux support. Had good reviews and performed well in tests. For the money, its been pretty solid to me. Im currently using 4 500GB seagate drives with it. I would recommend that you boot from a different hard drive, but thats me. You can boot from the array if you want

 

[yuchai]

I'm assuming you want to run linux software raid (md)?

If yes, you may want to look into getting a couple of these
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16815124020

Some negative reviews on newegg, but personally have one in my file server for over a year and it works without any issue. The chipset used is Silicon Image SIL3114 which is supported by the sata_sil module.

Setting up the array itself is fairly straight forward. I'd recommend using mdadm. Just google it and I'm sure you'll find a lot of useful guides. Oh, one thing. When you partition your new drives you want to set the partition type to Linux Raid autodetect (ID: fd).

 

[idea]

nervegrind3r, sounds like an awesome setup, wish i could afford it. Hopefully someone will post a cheaper card to use.

yuchai, the cards you mentioned don't support RAID5/6 they are just for RAID0/1