From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Nov 18 18:09:21 2014 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher AECDH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 6E24ED93; Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:09:21 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (wonkity.com [67.158.26.137]) (using TLSv1.2 with cipher ECDHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "wonkity.com", Issuer "wonkity.com" (not verified)) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTPS id 026CEDB5; Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:09:20 +0000 (UTC) Received: from wonkity.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by wonkity.com (8.14.9/8.14.9) with ESMTP id sAII9Imb018599 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384 bits=256 verify=NO); Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:09:19 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Received: from localhost (wblock@localhost) by wonkity.com (8.14.9/8.14.9/Submit) with ESMTP id sAII9IIi018596; Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:09:18 -0700 (MST) (envelope-from wblock@wonkity.com) Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:09:18 -0700 (MST) From: Warren Block To: Matthew Seaman Subject: Re: Hardware RAID or software for ZFS In-Reply-To: <546B820A.7040806@freebsd.org> Message-ID: References: <7F1B1DC4-46CA-4B96-836B-2D2D494F60E8@todoo.biz> <546B820A.7040806@freebsd.org> User-Agent: Alpine 2.11 (BSF 23 2013-08-11) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; format=flowed; charset=US-ASCII X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-4.4.3 (wonkity.com [127.0.0.1]); Tue, 18 Nov 2014 11:09:19 -0700 (MST) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.18-1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2014 18:09:21 -0000 On Tue, 18 Nov 2014, Matthew Seaman wrote: > On 11/18/14 15:28, bsd@todoo.biz wrote: >> I would need your help in order to figure out which will be the best in order to setup a server which will be used as a Poudriere server. >> >> My question is related to the usage of hardware RAID controller (JBOD) or software based controller (graid) >> >> Server we are targeting is a SuperMicro 1018R-WC0R - 1U >> >> I used to build my server using an HBA such as LSI SAS 9207-8i or LSI SAS 9201-16i >> Then I?ll configure the HBA as JBOD so that disks can be presented correctly to the system so that we can build our ZFS FS on top of that. >> >> >> My sysadmin suggested me to get rid of the HBA and use direct connectivity and Graid. >> >> >> I would like to have some feedback on various aspects : >> >> 1. performance >> 2. usability >> 3. problem one might have encountered >> > > OK -- Your sysadmin is correct about the direct connectivity thing, but > graid? Seriously? That's an option for really cheap and some might say > quite nasty pseudo-raid things you get on some desktop hardware. The implementations from different vendors no doubt vary in quality quite a bit. However, if a motherboard has a "software RAID device" (the euphemism we picked for the Handbook), those additional ports can almost certainly be used as plain non-RAID ports also. Essentially, it's the same as JBOD mode on a real RAID controller. So one way to look at this is based on how many ports are available on the motherboard. If there are not enough ports for the drive array, another controller is needed anyway. If there are enough ports, and the onboard controller can be set to non-RAID, then the option to use just the motherboard is available.