From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Nov 19 19:37:07 2008 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 D9E191065674 for ; Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:37:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jalmberg@identry.com) Received: from mx1.identry.com (on.identry.com [66.111.0.194]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7A2E58FC12 for ; Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:37:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jalmberg@identry.com) Received: (qmail 66104 invoked by uid 89); 19 Nov 2008 19:37:06 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO ?192.168.1.110?) (jalmberg@75.127.142.66) by mx1.identry.com with ESMTPA; 19 Nov 2008 19:37:06 -0000 Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v753.1) In-Reply-To: <20081119185829.GA4786@icarus.home.lan> References: <20081119164919.GA2347@icarus.home.lan> <20081119172649.GA3139@icarus.home.lan> <20081119185829.GA4786@icarus.home.lan> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; delsp=yes; format=flowed Message-Id: Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit From: John Almberg Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 14:37:05 -0500 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.753.1) Subject: Re: snmpd strangeness 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: Wed, 19 Nov 2008 19:37:07 -0000 >> This machine has an Intel motherboard and a hardware raid controller. >> From what I can tell, there is some Intel software installed on the >> machine that makes hardware faults visible to snmp. > > That would require Net-SNMP to be linked to that software (or library) > directly. Two things can't just "magically talk" to one another. :-) As I said, I really have no idea. Now that I'm reading more deeply in the notes... the monitoring was supposed to be with IPMI. No idea what that is, either, but I thought I'd toss it into the mix. > > AFAIK, Intel does not provide such software on FreeBSD, but I could be > complete wrong here. They primarily focus on Linux, like most > companies > do. > >> That last sentence makes it sound like I know more than I do about >> this >> situation. I'm just reading from notes. :-) >> >> And I have an Intel disk that came with the motherboard that hints at >> the same type of thing. I've just scanned the docs on the disk... >> looks >> extraordinarily complicated. > > I don't know what controller it is, but Net-SNMP doesn't have any sort > of out-of-the-box support for any kind of RAID card. See above for > what's needed. > > I just hope the card is an actual RAID card and not BIOS-level RAID > like > Intel MatrixRAID. If it is MatrixRAID, I highly recommend you back > the > entire machine up and reinstall without MatrixRAID, otherwise when you > lose a disk or need to rebuild your array, you'll find your array > broken/gone, be completely unable to rebuild it, or kernel panics. > Note > that all of this stuff works just fine on Linux; the issues listed are > with FreeBSD. > > Generally speaking, we (the open-source world) have gotten to the > point > with OS-based software RAID (e.g. Linux LVM, FreeBSD ccd/gvinum/ZFS, > OpenSolaris ZFS) where it offers significant advantages over hardware > RAID. There are good reasons to use hardware RAID, but in those > scenarios admins should be looking at buying an actual filer, e.g. > Network Appliance. Otherwise, for "simple" systems (even stuff like > 2U or 3U boxes with many disks, e.g. a "low-cost filer"), stick with > some form of OS-based software RAID if possible. > That's good to know. I was told just the opposite by the guy selling the $650 RAID cards. Who'd have thunk? The card in the box is a Intel 18E PCI-Express x8 SAS/SATA2 Hardware ROMB RAID with 128MB Memory Module and 72 Hour Battery Backup Cache $625 as shown on the packing list, so I hope it's a good one. -- John