# HP Smart Array P800: CCISS vs. HPSA ?

## tnt

I'm trying to get the best solution for HP Smart Array P800 on the gentoo box running kernel 3.x (3.0.6 currently).

there are two completely modules: CCISS and HPSA.

CCISS:

- the old one

- represents controller and LUNS as pure block devices

- officially supports P800

HPSA:

- the new one (in mainline kernel from 2.6.33)

- represents LUNS as SCSI devices (uses SCSI layer and all it's features)

- officially doesn't support P800

I've read here:

http://cciss.sourceforge.net/

that 

 *Quote:*   

> A new Smart Array driver called "hpsa" has been accepted into the main line linux kernel as of Dec 18, 2009, in linux-2.6.33-rc1. This new driver will support new Smart Array products going forward, and the cciss driver will eventually be deprecated.

 

I wanted to use HPSA as it CCISS will eventually be deprecated. 

I've loaded hpsa module with hpsa_allow_any=1 option which allows module to recognize "unsupported" controllers, and I've got my LUNs visible in /dev/sd*.

made some partitions, put ext4, mounted, done some testing.

everything seems fine so far. 

only visible drawback is that hpsa-related tools cannot detect the controller (for info/fine tuning).

so, what's the right way to go:

1. stay with HPSA hopping it will eventually support P800

2. use CCISS hopping it will not vanish from kernel during this box's lifetime

 :Question: 

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