SiI 4726 Port Multiplier Config & Partition Help

[SeekerU]

I am seeking assistance hacking together a eSATA storage solution for an older PC that has a current Lucid server install.

I have a nice, but older PC that needed some additional storage. Rather than continuing to stuff the box with IDE or expensive SCSI drives, I went looking for an eSATA RAID storage enclosure solution. I'm 75% of the way to having a working solution. However, I'm currently dead-ended looking for a way to configure the RAID and partition my array. Does anyone have any suggestions for making this work?

Here is what I have:

PCI to eSATA HBA: Koutech 4 x Hi-Speed USB 2.0 + 2 x SATA
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815201016>

SiI 4726 Based Storage Enclosure: AMS VENUS ES5 DS-315SES
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817332021>

Drives: a pair of Seagate Barracuda ST31500341AS
<http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00066IJPQ/ref=oss_product>

The HBA was installed and recognized by the PC BIOS. The HBA recognizes the drive enclosure with the drives.

lspci
-----------------
00:13.3 Mass storage controller: Silicon Image, Inc. SiI 3512 [SATALink/SATARaid] Serial ATA Controller (rev 01)
00:13.3 0180: 1095:3512 (rev 01)
Subsystem: 1095:3512
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 3
I/O ports at eca8 [size=8]
I/O ports at ecb8 [size=4]
I/O ports at ecb0 [size=8]
I/O ports at ecbc [size=4]
I/O ports at ecc0 [size=16]
Memory at fedfb400 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
[virtual] Expansion ROM at 08000000 [disabled] [size=512K]
Capabilities: <access denied>
Kernel driver in use: sata_sil
Kernel modules: sata_sil


fdisk -l
-------------------
Disk /dev/sdc: 1500.3 GB, 1500301910016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 182401 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00000000

Disk /dev/sdc doesn't contain a valid partition table

Out on the Silicon Image website, there was a SiI4726 Manager for Linux that is intended to configure and partition
<http://www.siliconimage.com/support/searchresults.aspx?pid=74&cat=24>
After a number of challenges, I've been able to get this software to execute. However, this software does not see the drives and I am out of tricks. This is where I am looking for help.

When using this SteelVine Manager Software, looking in the software log, it says that it sees devices 0/, 1/, 2/ and 26/ and it doesn't recognize any of them as an SiI 4726.

Some of the challenges...
- This software is dependent upon libstdc++5; last supported on Jaunty. I was able to install the package on Lucid and, for this purpose, it appears to be working.
- This software is also dependent upon an X server environment. I really didn't want to install a GUI environment on this already burdened system. I've installed the basic X Server environment with Openbox window manager. This appears to be sufficient.

[iaw4]

did this work? I am thinking of getting something similar.

/iaw4

[SeekerU]

Unfortunately, no. I was not able to get the SteelVines code to run on Ubuntu. I ended up hooking the storage unit up to a Windows platform to configure the RAID and partition it. I then returned it to my Ubuntu platform and I was able to mount and format the array. Unfortunately, Ubuntu doesn't recognize that I (as root) have write authority to the now formatted array and I haven't had time to pursue it further.