From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jun 23 14:56:31 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1BF9316A49A for ; Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:56:31 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (mail.web-strider.com [65.75.192.90]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 883D843D45 for ; Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:56:30 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Received: from coolf89ea26645 (nat-rtr.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com [65.75.197.130]) by mail.freebsd-corp-net-guide.com (8.11.1/8.11.1) with SMTP id k5NEuLx18275; Fri, 23 Jun 2006 07:56:22 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from tedm@toybox.placo.com) Message-ID: <000701c696d5$3331a5d0$3c01a8c0@coolf89ea26645> From: "Ted Mittelstaedt" To: "Philippe Lang" , "Doug Poland" References: <6C0CF58A187DA5479245E0830AF84F421D0E59@poweredge.attiksystem.ch> Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 07:56:22 -0700 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 6.00.2800.1807 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2800.1807 Cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: ICH5R, ICH7R or Promise PDC20378 RAID? 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: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 14:56:31 -0000 ----- Original Message ----- From: "Philippe Lang" To: "Ted Mittelstaedt" ; "Doug Poland" Cc: "freebsd-questions" Sent: Friday, June 23, 2006 1:46 AM Subject: RE: ICH5R, ICH7R or Promise PDC20378 RAID? > Ted Mittelstaedt wrote: > > >> 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. > > > > Your missing the point. > > > > If a disk crashes it wipes the metafile off the disk. > > > > If you want to simulate a disk crash, issue a raid detach command > > first, then pull the disk. > > > > The ata raid in the ata driver isn't written to handle the > > condition of > > a disk being pulled that has nothing wrong with it then reinserted. > > It is written to handle the condition of a disk crashing, then being > > pulled, then a new one replaced. > > > >> I used to play with hardware SCSI RAID controllers, and was never > >> able to trash the system. > > > > I have SCSI raid controllers too that I can do that with. But keep in > > mind that these controllers firmware is written to if a disk > > is pulled then > > replaced, it immediately assumes that the disk is toast, and > > rebuilds it > > from scratch. > > Hi, > > I'm not an expert in RAID Ted, and I don't want to be. Simply, in situations where a disk crashes, and the server is not redundant anymore, I prefer having a controller that I can rely on, both eyes closed. I have just installed the 3WARE controller this morning, and did the exact same operations I did with the ICH5/7R and onboard Promise controller of my ASUS boards. It's simply not comparable at all, and for a really affordable price. The server did not crash, and is by the way rebuilding the RAID at the moment... Despite all my efforts, I was not able to trash it. > > A 3WARE controller is really worth the investment, really. > Ah, you must of missed the thread where I recommended the 3ware controller to someone complaining that there wasn't any hardware support for FreeBSD. I happen to have a couple of the 3ware controllers myself. The 3ware controller works but so does the integrated RAID in the ata driver - if you know how to handle it, and you have the right hardware. And granted, the man page does not do a good job of documenting how to recover from a crashed disk. However, not everyone thinks $200 USD is a "really affordable price" and if all you want to do is mirroring then the integrated ata RAID is fine. Keep in mind that in a 1U server, you don't have room for more than 2 disks anyway. The 3ware controller's main strength over the integrated RAID is that it has additional features, like RAID-5, offline rebuild, etc. Ted