Could anyone please help me to make my choice in favor of Intel RS2BL080 SAS controller.
I'm planning to get it with Intel AXXRSBBU7 battery and use it with 4x 4TB SAS Seagate Constellation ES (ST4000NM0023) (for now and then upgrade to 4 more drives). My questions are very simple and I need answers with this:
1. Will this controller work with 4x 4TB SAS Seagate drives in RAID10 under Linux CentOS 6.3? WIll CentOS see them as one drive prior installation? (I mean hardware RAID10, not software on Intel R2308GZ4GC server platform)
2. Will I be able to upgrade without destroying my current array to 4 more identical drives, mentioning that the data on that RAID10 will be encrypted?
3. Do I really need that extra battery in case my server will run in TIER3+ data-center? How much information could be lost in case of power off without that battery? All that data that's staying in cache at the moment of the power off?
4. Is this good controller or I'd better to take a look at something better from Intel?
Thanks in advance,
Ilia