From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Sep 16 12:35:54 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 5100B16A403 for ; Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:35:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from danny@cs.huji.ac.il) Received: from cs1.cs.huji.ac.il (cs1.cs.huji.ac.il [132.65.16.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D1A0143D58 for ; Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:35:53 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from danny@cs.huji.ac.il) Received: from pampa.cs.huji.ac.il ([132.65.80.32]) by cs1.cs.huji.ac.il with esmtp id 1GOZOi-0009lJ-7g; Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:35:52 +0300 X-Mailer: exmh version 2.7.2 01/07/2005 with nmh-1.2 To: Robert Blayzor In-reply-to: <450BE564.20106@inoc.net> References: <450B62C9.5000706@inoc.net> <7579f7fb0609152252y5660195fo419a67dbe90904cd@mail.gmail.com> <450BE564.20106@inoc.net> Comments: In-reply-to Robert Blayzor message dated "Sat, 16 Sep 2006 07:52:04 -0400." Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 15:35:52 +0300 From: Danny Braniss Message-ID: Cc: Matthew Jacob , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: iSCSI HBAs X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 16 Sep 2006 12:35:54 -0000 > Matthew Jacob wrote: > > Why do you think an iSCSI HBA would be of any benefit to anything > > other than the target mode side as a server? > > > Mostly for deploying servers that are diskless, quickly. No need to > depend on another server (other than the iSCSI target) to get servers up > without a lot of fusing around. Diskless + the software initiator seems > like a lot of fusing around to get one server up. I mean I could be > wrong, I'm not really sure how the FreeBSD software initiator works or > if it's actual optimized and stable. If it's as easy as setting up a > DHCP and TFTP server just to boot the kernel, then mount the iSCSI > volume, that might be an option. But right now, if an iSCSI HBA driver > was available it might be the more reliable way to go. Again, I could > be way off base. We use FreeBSD in all of our server clusters now, most > via RAID1 mirrors on every server, I'd like to stay with FreeBSD, but > sometimes it's lack of support for new server beneficial drivers make > that choice hard to make. we have been running diskless clients for a few hundred work stations, so i think i have some experience :-) 1- setting a diskless freebsd is far easier than linux 2- it's by far much easier to manage. btw, the majority of ws are running linux. being involved with the iSCSI initiator for FreeBSD, I can't see where this can help for a diskless host, or in other words, what's wrong with NFS? also, the TOE cards are not that cheep either :-) my 2c, danny