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Date:      Wed, 5 Feb 2014 10:42:45 -0800
From:      aurfalien <aurfalien@gmail.com>
To:        Daniel Kalchev <daniel@digsys.bg>
Cc:        freebsd-fs <freebsd-fs@freebsd.org>
Subject:   Re: practical maximum number of drives
Message-ID:  <785DBF11-1550-4918-B346-4843D7E2AF0B@gmail.com>
In-Reply-To: <52F1FBBA.1000909@digsys.bg>
References:  <52F1BDA4.6090504@physics.umn.edu>	<7D20F45E-24BC-4595-833E-4276B4CDC2E3@gmail.com>	<52F1DEBC.9020304@digsys.bg> <CAOeNLuqhT1y7rzA2=80jzXByrYy0cbCTaFv-5=X1KOnkFtRN8Q@mail.gmail.com> <52F1FBBA.1000909@digsys.bg>

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Cool.

But I was more curious about what lead you to using 1 HBA over using a =
few more.

You mentioned something about interrupts, what problems manifested as a =
result of multi HBAs?

- aurf

On Feb 5, 2014, at 12:52 AM, Daniel Kalchev <daniel@digsys.bg> wrote:

> Ok, two things.
>=20
> First, it was a typo -- the number is 122 devices and I actually got =
it from the likes of this FAQ entry: =
http://www.supermicro.com/support/faqs/faq.cfm?faq=3D10004
> I never use these for anything other than HBA.
>=20
> It is interesting to see that LSI claims 3000 devices. Might be, =
firmware has changed? Or there are different variations of the =
chip/implementation?
>=20
> Daniel
>=20
> On 05.02.14 10:08, Rich wrote:
>> The SAS2008 has a limit of 112 drives?
>>=20
>> =
http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/SAS%20ICs/LSISAS2008/SCG_LSISAS2008_PB=
_043009.pdf
>> claims "up to 3000 devices."
>>=20
>> SAS2008 is a PCIe gen 2 x8 chip.
>>=20
>> I suspect the bottleneck order would go SAS expander then SAS2008 =
then PCIe.
>>=20
>> - Rich
>>=20
>> On Wed, Feb 5, 2014 at 1:48 AM, Daniel Kalchev <daniel@digsys.bg> =
wrote:
>>> I also wonder how you managed to go over the LSI2008's limit of 112
>>> drives...
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> On 05.02.14 07:36, aurfalien wrote:
>>>> Hi Graham,
>>>>=20
>>>> When you say behaved better with 1 HBA, what were the issues that =
made you
>>>> go that route?
>>>>=20
>>>> Also, curious that you have that many drives on 1 PCI card, is it =
PCI 3
>>>> etc... and is saturation an issue?
>>>>=20
>>>> - aurf
>>>>=20
>>>> On Feb 4, 2014, at 8:27 PM, Graham Allan <allan@physics.umn.edu> =
wrote:
>>>>=20
>>>>> This may well be a question with no real answer but since we're =
speccing
>>>>> out a new ZFS-based storage system, I've been asked what the =
maximum number
>>>>> of drives it can support would be (for a hypothetical expansion =
option).
>>>>> While there are some obvious limits such as SAS addressing, I =
assume there
>>>>> must be more fundamental ones in the kernel or drivers, and the =
practical
>>>>> limits will be very different from the hypothetical ones.
>>>>>=20
>>>>> So far the largest system we've built is using three 45-drive =
chassis on
>>>>> one SAS2008 (mps) controller, so 135 drives total. Over many =
months of
>>>>> running we had several drives fail and be replaced, and eventually =
the OS
>>>>> (9.1) failed to assign new da devices. It was time to patch the =
system and
>>>>> reboot anyway, which solved it, but we did wonder if we were =
running into
>>>>> some kind of limit around 150 drives - though I don't see why.
>>>>>=20
>>>>> Interestingly we initially built this system with each drive =
chassis on
>>>>> its own SAS2008 HBA, but it ultimately behaved better =
daisy-chained with
>>>>> only one. I think I saw a hint somewhere this could be to do with =
interrupt
>>>>> sharing...
>>>>>=20
>>>>> Thanks for any insights,
>>>>>=20
>>>>> Graham
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> freebsd-fs@freebsd.org mailing list
>>>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-fs
>>>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to =
"freebsd-fs-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> freebsd-fs@freebsd.org mailing list
>>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-fs
>>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to =
"freebsd-fs-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
>>>=20
>>>=20
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> freebsd-fs@freebsd.org mailing list
>>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-fs
>>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to =
"freebsd-fs-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"
>=20
> _______________________________________________
> freebsd-fs@freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-fs
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-fs-unsubscribe@freebsd.org"




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