From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue May 31 18:26:27 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CB65116A41F for ; Tue, 31 May 2005 18:26:27 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from toomas.aas@raad.tartu.ee) Received: from mail.neti.ee (smtp-out-3.neti.ee [194.126.101.111]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 75DF743D48 for ; Tue, 31 May 2005 18:26:26 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from toomas.aas@raad.tartu.ee) Received: from [84.50.64.62] (84-50-64-62-dsl.trt.estpak.ee [84.50.64.62]) by Relayhost1.neti.ee (Postfix) with ESMTP id 196C62204; Tue, 31 May 2005 21:26:18 +0300 (EEST) Message-ID: <429CAC48.90500@raad.tartu.ee> Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 21:26:16 +0300 From: Toomas Aas User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 1.0.2 (X11/20050408) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: "Aaron C. Meadows" References: <429340EC.2080801@shadowguarddev.com> In-Reply-To: <429340EC.2080801@shadowguarddev.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new-2.2.1 (20041222) (Debian) at neti.ee Cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Hardware RAID Cards.. X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 31 May 2005 18:26:28 -0000 Aaron C. Meadows wrote: > I have an IBM Netfinity 5000 server I just picked up, and it has an > Adaptec AAA-131U2 (aic7815 chipset) RAID card in it, attached to 5 IBM > Branded (Seagate ST39204LC) Hot Swap Ultra160 9.1gig SCSI Harddrives. > > My question is, since that chipset is unsupported for hardware RAID, > would I be better off to software RAID them, or get a different RAID card? > > Contingent question is, if I should get another RAID card, what would > be a good, supported, entry level card? This server will be purposed > as a webserver for a small webhosting company, maybe 100 sites on it. > Running Postfix,Bind,Apache2,PHP,Postgresql,etc I'm running a Netfinity 5000 with IBM ServeRAID 3L adapter. I won't say it's good (it lacks any kind of online RAID management or monitoring from within FreeBSD AFAICT), but it works and is definitely 'entry level'. This machine works as a webmail/IMAP server for ~150 users, listserver hosting ~50 mailing lists and as incoming mail scanner/gateway (postfix+amavisd+spamassassin+clamav) for another mail server with ca 500 users. Getting it to work with FreeBSD 5.2.1 was a pain, but 5.3 seems to run good. Doesn't boot with ACPI enabled, though. As to other suggestions made in this thread, they don't seem to be relevant for Netfinity 5000 since I can't think of a way to use ATA drives in this machine. --- ... When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading.