Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 14:34:23 -0400 From: "Mike Stackhouse" <mike@samsa.com> To: "Brian T. Schellenberger" <bts@babbleon.org>, <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Promise ATA RAID FastTrak100 TX2 Pro for Freebsd 4.5 Message-ID: <200208221434.AA46399802@samsa.com>
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We are installing on V4.5 I think we'll just download and install on the most recent release to remove that as a variable. Once we get it working (assuming we do!), one more question. FreeBSD picks up the raid array as ar0, with subdisks ad4 and ad7. Where should we create our disk slices and mount points? We could create on ar0, ad4, or ad7. Seems to me that since we're creating a hotswap mirror set, FreeBSD shouldn't even know about the specific disk devices such as ad4 and ad7 - rather it should know about ar0. Is this where we should create our mount points? Mike ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- From: "Brian T. Schellenberger" <bts@babbleon.org> Date: Thu, 22 Aug 2002 08:02:35 -0400 > >Is this 4.6? There is a workaround for install problems that was on one >of the lists (-stable ?) earlier that involves these two settings: > >hw.ata.atapi_dma=1 >hw.ata.ata_dma=1 > >There is a way to set them at install time, but because I didn't need to >do it I did not remember what that method is. But you might try >explicitly asking about it, or just search the archives. > > >On Thursday 22 August 2002 07:27 am, Mike Stackhouse wrote: >| Well, first I'm just trying to get it working. The install process >| won't even complete. The copy from CD process goes slow, and it >| eventually hangs during the tunefs process. >| >| Works just fine on the same machine with the regular (non-RAID) >| controller - we're just trying to make the RAID controller work... >| >| ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- >| From: "Brian T. Schellenberger" <bts@babbleon.org> >| Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 22:42:01 -0400 >| >| >Add the following to /boot/loader.conf >| > >| >hw.ata.wc=0 >| > >| >This will slow down your i/o considerably. I'm not sure that's what >| > you want, though; I thought you were trying to optimize your >| > performance, not degrade it. >| > >| >It will make your data a lot safer. >| > >| >One of those tradeoffs . . . >| > >| >On Wednesday 21 August 2002 10:18 pm, Mike Stackhouse wrote: >| >| Thanks - where would we disable write cache? >| >| >| >| Mike >| >| ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- >| >| From: "Brian T. Schellenberger" <bts@babbleon.org> >| >| Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 21:45:52 -0400 >| >| >| >| >On Wednesday 21 August 2002 09:23 pm, Mike Stackhouse wrote: >| >| >| Thanks - we'll try without softupdates. >| >| > >| >| >Softupdates should increase both performance and reliability, at >| >| > the cost of sometimes making you "seem" to have less disk space >| >| > than you actually have when the updates are behind the requests. >| >| > >| >| >(This problem is apparently fixed in -CURRENT, though.) >| >| > >| >| >So there's no reason not to try it and see what happens but I'd >| >| > be surprised if it *helped* performance to turn off softupdates. >| >| > Another thing that of course that has an huge impact on >| >| > performance is write caching; disabling it is slower but safer; >| >| > enabling it is faster but more dangerous. >| >| > >| >| >Personally I take advantage of the increased performance that >| >| >softupdates gets me to disable the write caching. This is much >| >| > safer than without softupdates and with write caching and only >| >| > slightly slower. >| >| > >| >| >I personally strong recommend *against* enabling both write >| >| > caching and softupdates at the same time; it should be very fast >| >| > but in my experience it makes it very, very easy to lose state >| >| > on power-down. >| >| > >| >| >| Interesting comment on no support for hot swap. >| >| > >| >| >Support for hot swap in ATA was added during the 4.5-STABLE >| >| > period and is in 4.6-RELEASE. It is not present in 4.5-RELEASE. >| >| > Unfortunately, the "new" ATA code that added this support also >| >| > broke some ATA stuff, especially w/r/t CD-ROMs, so a test >| >| > configuation might be advisable first to make sure that the cure >| >| > isn't worse than the disease. >| >| > >| >| >| Our whole intention >| >| >| for raid-1 is to prevent system downtime in case of drive >| >| >| failure. From your comment, doesn't sound like FreeBSD supports >| >| >| this? Would our only alternative be software raid? >| >| >| >| >| >| Thanks in advance! >| >| >| ---------- Original Message ---------------------------------- >| >| >| From: "Derek" <derek@durham.net> >| >| >| Date: Wed, 21 Aug 2002 16:22:12 -0400 >| >| >| >| >| >| >> Is there something we should do to optimize our >| >| >| >> configuration? >| >| >| > >| >| >| >We have installed the very same product on one of our FreeBSD >| >| >| >boxen, it was 4.4-STABLE when we ran the install program, and >| >| >| >every thing went smooth. I believe this was before >| >| >| > softupdates was enabled by default. Perhaps when you are >| >| >| > creating your mount points you could try disabling >| >| >| > softupdates and see if that makes a difference. >| >| >| > >| >| >| >As a side note (that you might want to know), I don't believe >| >| >| >that the driver in FreeBSD supports hot swap. At least any >| >| >| > time we've had a drive fail, we get a kernel panic, and it's >| >| >| > rebuild mirror from the card's BIOS. >| >| >| > >| >| >| >Regards, >| >| >| >Derek >| >| >| >| >| >| To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >| >| >| with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message >| >| > >| >| >-- >| >| >Brian, the man from Babble-On . . . . bts@babbleon.org >| >| > (personal) >| > >| >-- >| >Brian, the man from Babble-On . . . . bts@babbleon.org (personal) >| > >| >To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >| >with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message >| >| To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org >| with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message > >-- >Brian, the man from Babble-On . . . . bts@babbleon.org (personal) > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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