From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jan 21 09:16:08 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EEA231065698; Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:16:08 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kgysmits@gmail.com) Received: from mail-fx0-f11.google.com (mail-fx0-f11.google.com [209.85.220.11]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 08A1B8FC16; Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:16:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from kgysmits@gmail.com) Received: by fxm4 with SMTP id 4so867902fxm.19 for ; Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:16:07 -0800 (PST) DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=domainkey-signature:mime-version:received:in-reply-to:references :date:message-id:subject:from:to:cc:content-type; bh=yZ4uEtJCAnaEibAnFddhJ+v4r4kGXxmUCEPUXAM2mjA=; b=MoMPe0se1U50ovxCW4hNRWX/1+Ha0SU5Yc5ieSnIq2PAqkQuQA6oYcLoaWL2CF8JBn BaYX8z68gTYenmY2Yuy7pNqy88aUAjpHjaA8lcVKaahXcWnQaJ9nmojJBfE+W9GHSnYa M6oh0Ce0PMDvWul18x7N4teedsOqnZY8NUb9U= DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; c=nofws; d=gmail.com; s=gamma; h=mime-version:in-reply-to:references:date:message-id:subject:from:to :cc:content-type; b=IZ8NTaaIRk8q4IFgiMPjBHxjyxc/Rl18c2ezu3OpGukSw3tUFOykLW76tfy5YJsF3r ROOMWApNuStqpi2S9hMxOuaZvnvElsoNBo97+picO5pgWSsYsZERnodStPT1WvXLM5M3 QXTBYqIYsiW/YRp6+HiCEYEqDNMgi2PxVTxr0= MIME-Version: 1.0 Received: by 10.223.110.3 with SMTP id l3mr3299522fap.48.1232529366886; Wed, 21 Jan 2009 01:16:06 -0800 (PST) In-Reply-To: <4976C370.4030406@dannysplace.net> References: <20081031033208.GA21220@icarus.home.lan> <20081117070818.GA22231@icarus.home.lan> <496549D9.7010003@dannysplace.net> <4966B6B1.8020502@dannysplace.net> <496712A2.4020800@dannysplace.net> <4976C370.4030406@dannysplace.net> Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 10:16:06 +0100 Message-ID: From: Koen Smits To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Jeremy Chadwick , freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Areca vs. ZFS performance testing. X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2009 09:16:09 -0000 > > Areca Support: > Dear Sir, > the only difference is > in JBOD mode, controller configure all drives as passthrough disk. > in RAID mode, you have to configure passthrough disk by yourself in RAID > mode > > in other words, you can use raid with passthrough disks at saem time in > RAID mode but JBOD mode not. > > Me: > So does that mean if I use passthrough, I am not protected by the > cache/battery backup? I ask because there is an option for cache mode > when creating a passthrough disk. i.e. Write-Back or Write-Through missed my 'reply to all' button, here goes the 2nd try. So 'passthrough' means that the controller lets the OS see the physical disks just as they are, but with an invisible cache in between that buffers operations. This way there is no advantage of the onboard XOR engine, but you do profit from the intelligent cache, which is the most important anyway imho. JBOD mode is at a disadvantage because in this mode the OS sees one large drive, and is not able to stripe the data to multiple disks, not taking advantage of the fact that you have multple spindles available. Makes sense to me :). I must admit, I do like these results. Very promising. Further tests would be using an SSD for the ZIL, testing linux and NT, etc. But let's not go there ;).