Date: Wed, 21 Jun 2006 11:32:47 +0200 From: "Philippe Lang" <philippe.lang@attiksystem.ch> To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" <tedm@toybox.placo.com>, "Doug Poland" <doug@polands.org> Cc: freebsd-questions <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: RE: ICH5R, ICH7R or Promise PDC20378 RAID? Message-ID: <6C0CF58A187DA5479245E0830AF84F421D0E40@poweredge.attiksystem.ch>
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Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: >>> On Mon, Jun 19, 2006 at 10:18:05AM +0200, Philippe Lang wrote: >>>> Hi, >>>>=20 >>>> I've got two boxes that would be perfect for a small server. The >>>> motherboards are:=20 >>>>=20 >>>> - ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe, with ICH5R and Promise PDC20378 >>>> - ASUS P5WD2, with ICH7R >>>>=20 >>>> I intend to install FreeBSD 6.1, and I wonder which chipset you >>>> would recommend me for RAID 1? I need something rock-solid, of >>>> course...=20 >>>>=20 >>> I'm running -STABLE on a P4C800-E. I've never had a problem with >>> the PDC20378. Recently, I added two drives on the ICH5R with no >>> issues. A little benchmarking shows the ICH5R to be a little faster. >>=20 >> Hi, >>=20 >> I wasn't as lucky as Doug with my ASUS P4C800-E Deluxe board, both >> with the ICH5R and Promise RAID controller. >>=20 >> 1) With the Promise controller, after simulating a disk problem >> (shutdown - disk disconnection - reboot - shutdown - disk >> reconnection - reboot), I wasn't able to rebuild the array at all, >> either with "atacontrol rebuild ar0" or from the bios. I suspect a >> spare disk is necessary for a complete rebuild. >>=20 >> 2) With the ICH5R controller, installation went fine too. If I >> disconnect a disk, the system still boots, but when I plug the disk >> back (computer shut down), no boot is possible anymore. At boot, a >> kernel panic says: "softdep_setup_inomapdep". No array rebuild is >> possible from the bios, so I'm stuck. >>=20 >=20 > You need to take the disk you unplugged to some other machine > and wipe it, then make sure the one disk with the system left > on it is in the 0 position, put the wiped disk in the 1 > position, then you should be able to boot. >=20 > Your simulating a failure when you pull the one disk, but > your not simulating a recovery when you insert that disk back in. >=20 > Ted Hi, I'm sure there are solutions to make things work, but personnaly, I don't feel confortable with a RAID system that acts that way, and that is supposed to make the whole system more robust and problem-free. I used to play with hardware SCSI RAID controllers, and was never able to trash the system. Arrays are being rebuilt in the background, that's just great. I hope this is the kind of ease and quality I will get with the 3WARE raid controller I have ordered... Apparently, everyone says very good things about 3WARE. --------------- Philippe Lang Attik System
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