You know there is utilities and tutorials on converting rhel packages to .deb (debian) right? So you can convert the drivers for what you have to a debian package or compile them from source. But if your card doesn't have the option module for RAID5... Yes would recommend a better card.
I do mostly Linux and UNIX server support.
My recommends- Adaptec, then LSI...
I love LSI cards! I've always felt that they are the industry standard for RAID cards. They always seem to be the one that set the standards in new technology that everyone else then copies or emulates. Sidenote on that list- 3ware, MegaRaid & LSI are the same entity now.
But for HP Servers, I lean towards the Adaptec Cards. Reason why? "Some" HP servers have something different about their BIOS keyboard interrupts. In the past, I've had some problems (with some boxes) putting LSI cards in HP servers. They come up fine, but then when you go to hit their BIOS hotkey to configure them, the Main system's BIOS intercepts it (for their use) causing some kind of conflict and you can't get into the RAID card's BIOS. You can still get in after it boots via software configuration management... But if you do have a problem like that, it's hard to "disaster manage" that server if it doesn't boot to a OS prompt.
But like I said, that is only with some HP Servers with some LSI cards. There was a LSI firmware microcode update that was supposed to address that. But after burning those update images to card BIOS, I still have some LSI cards that still don't work with some of my HP Servers. So if you try an LSI card on it, make sure you can return it if it ends up having that conflict problem. That conflict doesn't have anything to do with how it functions, just in being able to manage it through the hotkeys. Those same cards of mine are working just fine in other servers. I think the LSI cards have more features, but they have to work with what you have right? LSI cards come with drivers for rhel Linux and source that you can compile for debian... Although they say that, I haven't had one not seen by debian or Ubuntu, so they seem to be covered by the Ubuntu repo's drivers. But... read on...
Adaptec has a reputation of being more open to "opensource" with their driver code to Linux and UNIX. And there are so many Adaptec cards out there working on everything... Their Series 6 and Series 7 cards are directly supported with debian and "ubuntu" drivers and software packages from them through Ubuntu 12.04LTS (so far):
http://www.adaptec.com/en-us/products/
For a production box I would go with their Series 7 cards, for end-of-life factors... It is what is their current production line. Their older 2 through 5 series cards came with Ubuntu drivers, but they stopped direct "flavored" driver download support from them for those cards at Ubuntu 11.04. I still think those older cards are supported directly by drivers in the Ubuntu Repo's, by AAC.
Whatever you get, 64bit PCIE, battery backed BIOS... able to configure with both the onboard BIOS and the software utils... Alerts through BIOS or software monitored. Able to do RAID5, RAID5EE and maybe even RAID6. As with other system alerts, I have my RAID status alerts (both mdadm and hardware RAID), SMART status and storage capacity alerts emailed to "me" from my systems.
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