From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Sep 6 03:15:01 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 635F216A41A for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2007 03:15:01 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mkhitrov@gmail.com) Received: from nz-out-0506.google.com (nz-out-0506.google.com [64.233.162.238]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 22D1C13C458 for ; Thu, 6 Sep 2007 03:15:00 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from mkhitrov@gmail.com) Received: by nz-out-0506.google.com with SMTP id l8so23407nzf for ; Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:15:00 -0700 (PDT) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=domainkey-signature:received:received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; bh=ib9fvlq6QxCbNzlCYnLl+8ScIRX7Tj0WmOC37k5FtA0=; b=Otr8tu9DWiU+GUo2336EDsEQrPyI8kx4rvz/MiKFoz+t5N9qmc5eMOANHFWm3HcJk8WIHLA84mnToOXTNhkMNXn+KkERVZEuzk2wxyU3xuX14j/9/Qpxv8WizZVqmrcwjDL4gT9HDynoO7mGNKoNV75QxR2VRA2rzVaw4aSrTpI= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=beta; h=received:message-id:date:from:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=E6BE1kj9nk8FuWzz4bEMP1UefDia75xO8x91lz7tKoeIXwQ++wujfwkbTdC3Qqypj6lVR7NMvbiVNBJPcbbUesMz2PIJTPL9CEUgNgWUzt7ahVVI8w/Q3/4Cnra5EKyP36RMZHYkM20ArGGKV2AFOAIDvy29GJJHxIVzlC0+/3Y= Received: by 10.142.231.7 with SMTP id d7mr4931wfh.1189048499594; Wed, 05 Sep 2007 20:14:59 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.143.10.17 with HTTP; Wed, 5 Sep 2007 20:14:59 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <26ddd1750709052014k384ccfd3s9890a1576d1db344@mail.gmail.com> Date: Wed, 5 Sep 2007 23:14:59 -0400 From: "Maxim Khitrov" To: "brad davison" In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Content-Disposition: inline References: <26ddd1750709051621m439700e3v20f0e56c2a53f930@mail.gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: RAID Controller Recommendations: ARC-1210 or 9650SE-4LPML 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: Thu, 06 Sep 2007 03:15:01 -0000 On 9/5/07, brad davison wrote: > > > >Hello, > > > >My two main candidates are Areca ARC-1210, and 3ware 9650SE-4LPML. > >Both are 4-lane SATA II controllers. Both cost about the same, and > >from what I gather, both should be supported by FreeBSD. I read the > >reviews, but would like to get some additional feedback specifically > >for using the two under FreeBSD (maybe one has better drivers... I > >don't know). > > I just put a 3ware Escalade into our mail server. I don't have experience > with the model you are speaking of, but I know that 3ware and BSD have a > good long history together. I had no problems with the controller (but I > did have a strange issue with some Seagate drives, replacing them with > Western Digitals fixed that though.) > > >RAID5? Which one has more mature drivers? If you have some other > >recommendations, I'm happy to hear those as well. > > Like I mentioned, I had no problems with the 3ware, and it had good driver > support in BSD. > > from the 3ware website::: http://www.3ware.com/support/OS-Support.asp > 9650SE Series > > * FreeBSD 5.0 driver source available in 9.4.1 code set > * FreeBSD 6.0 driver source available in 9.4.1 code set > * FreeBSD 6.1 (x86 & x86_64) > > Take it easy, > Brad Good to know, thanks. Would still like to know a bit more about Areca, since I have no experience with them and only heard about their products recently. As an alternative, I was considering the cheap(er) option. The motherboard (GA-P35-DQ6) comes with 6 SATA II ports connected to ICH9R. I have a feeling that using RAID 5 with this option would be rather slow, that's why I'm looking into a dedicated hardware controller. However, RAID 10 is a fairly simple implementation. I can't use RAID 0 because I need redundancy, and RAID 1 is too slow. RAID 10 obviously requires more drives, but for the $300 that I would have spent on the controller, maybe instead it's worth to simply buy an additional drive or two and use the built-in controller. Any thoughts on this? I could probably get 4 320GB Seagate 7200.10 drives to begin with and have 640GB of space. Would add two more later on when I need them. This actually turns out to be cheaper initially than getting 3 of those drives along with a hardware controller. My guess is that performance may also be better due to simplicity of design. How does FreeBSD play with ICH9R RAID? - Max