From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Apr 2 19:09:36 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 75A9E16A400 for ; Sun, 2 Apr 2006 19:09:36 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from hartzell@alerce.com) Received: from merlin.alerce.com (w094.z064001164.sjc-ca.dsl.cnc.net [64.1.164.94]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 071E743D53 for ; Sun, 2 Apr 2006 19:09:35 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from hartzell@alerce.com) Received: from merlin.alerce.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by merlin.alerce.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id B536F5643A; Sun, 2 Apr 2006 12:09:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: from satchel.alerce.com (w092.z064001164.sjc-ca.dsl.cnc.net [64.1.164.92]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by merlin.alerce.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 802F656435; Sun, 2 Apr 2006 12:09:01 -0700 (PDT) Received: from satchel.alerce.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by satchel.alerce.com (8.13.4/8.13.4) with ESMTP id k32J9eGY077656; Sun, 2 Apr 2006 12:09:40 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hartzell@satchel.alerce.com) Received: (from hartzell@localhost) by satchel.alerce.com (8.13.4/8.13.4/Submit) id k32J9VhH077617; Sun, 2 Apr 2006 12:09:31 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from hartzell) From: George Hartzell MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <17456.8555.346837.713452@satchel.alerce.com> Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2006 12:09:31 -0700 To: "Daniel O'Connor" In-Reply-To: <200604022255.03855.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> References: <20060401110818.U54953@localhost> <200604021233.20917.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> <200604022255.03855.doconnor@gsoft.com.au> X-Mailer: VM 7.17 under 21.4 (patch 17) "Jumbo Shrimp" XEmacs Lucid X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV using ClamSMTP Cc: Matthias Andree , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: SATA RAID: Adaptec 1420SA, Promise TX4300? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: hartzell@alerce.com List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 02 Apr 2006 19:09:36 -0000 Daniel O'Connor writes: > On Sunday 02 April 2006 17:48, Matthias Andree wrote: > > > You can't boot off a system with a dead primary disk with software RAID1. > > > (well you MIGHT but.. in any case RAID1 cards are quite cheap) > > > > It's a matter of the BIOS: > > will it complain, or will it proceed to the next SATA disk? > > Yes indeed. > It also depends on the failure mode of the disk. > > Personally I think the price is worth paying :) > (Although for a home server you can get your hands on easily then software > RAID should not be a problem) One of the advantages that purely software raid (e.g. gmirror) has over "hardware" raid (faux or genuine) is that in an emergency I can take one or both of my gmirror'ed disks and put them in just about any system that I can come up with and they'll work. With raid systems that use proprietary metadata I'd need to find a similar controller to hook them up to. I think that this is one of those Darned Engineering Tradeoffs, but I'd rather have the flexibility in assembling hardware than having the raid be able to boot w/out intervention w/ a dead disk. g.