Date: Mon, 19 Sep 2005 16:02:54 +0000 From: Marcin Jessa <lists@yazzy.org> To: joao.barros@gmail.com Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: raid framework from OpenBSD Message-ID: <20050919160254.38fb974a.lists@yazzy.org> In-Reply-To: <70e8236f0509190811227c81a3@mail.gmail.com> References: <1126683752.4306.6.camel@massimo.datacode.it> <4327DC81.7040903@samsco.org> <70e8236f050916092979979613@mail.gmail.com> <432B069E.8000104@samsco.org> <70e8236f0509190811227c81a3@mail.gmail.com>
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On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 16:11:27 +0100 Joao Barros <joao.barros@gmail.com> wrote: > On 9/16/05, Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org> wrote: > > Joao Barros wrote: > > > On 9/14/05, Scott Long <scottl@samsco.org> wrote: > > > > > >>Massimo wrote: > > >> > > >>>I would like to know what do you think about new OpenBSD raid framework > > >>>management. > > >>>http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=openbsd-misc&m=112630095818062 > > >>> > > >>>Doesn't it seems good stuff which is good for consideration? > > >>> > > >>>Regards. > > >> > > >>Creating a unified management tool for multiple RAID architectures has > > >>been a Holy Grail for at least 10 years, if not longer. It's > > >>deceptively hard, though. While it sounds straight-forward and is > > >>relatively easy to do for 1 or 2 architectures, the vast differences in > > >>how different architectures work makes it quickly turn into a huge mess. > > >>This is especially true when it comes to topology discovery and > > >>management and asynchronous event notification. Often times the only > > >>course is to degrade to a very simple, lowest common denominator > > >>interface, which then starts to limit the usefulness of the tool. I've > > >>been involved in several professional projects in exactly this area, and > > >>it simply is very, very hard to do well. The OpenBSD work looks > > >>interesting, but unless they can demostrate useful operation on more > > >>than 1 or 2 architectures, it's not terribly impressive. That's not to > > >>say that it can't be done and be a success, but the amount of required > > >>effort should not be underestimated. It's relatively easy to come up > > >>with a framework and implement one architecture module in it, then tell > > >>everyone else to simply add more modules. > > >> > > >>Also, it's not clear from the email whether the tool has to be manually > > >>told to rescan and look for changes in the state of the array (not just > > >>SES/SAFTE changes of the component drives). Displaying status on demand > > >>is fine, but what admin sits in front of their terminal and refreshes > > >>their monitoring apps every 5 seconds? The key is to have a an event > > >>notification pipeline that can collect events in near real time, filter > > >>them in a configurable way, and send out email/pager alerts when > > >>appropriate. Also, what does this mean for a datacenter full of > > >>machines that need to be monitored? Does a remote terminal session need > > >>to be opened on each one in order for monitoring to work? > > >> > > >>But, even if this particular work degrades into only being a tool for > > >>AMI (I assume they mean MegaRAID) controllers, it's still useful and I > > >>give them credit for doing it. > > > > > > > > > Having an amr I'm most interested in this, as I guess more people are. > > > Given that there is "customer" interest, my question is: is there > > > interest from you in this, having it imported to FreeBSD? > > > I've looked at the code and I wouldn't mind starting to work on this. > > > > > > -- > > > Joao Barros > > > > Give it a try if you're interested. > > > > Scott > > > > I'v talked to marco@openbsd and he seemed very open to the idea and > available to assist me :) > > The machine I have the ami installed is rather slow, a PIII 733MHz and > today at work I reserved a Compaq DL380 with a 3.0GHz Xeon and a ciss( > I think) which according to the controller's documentation already has > bio support, so I'll be able to test both controllers. I have access > to Dell (amr mostly), IBM (isp), and Compaq machines so I can try and > add support for more controllers :) > Great, keep us informed. I have a couple of AMI controllers myself and will be happy to help out with testing. Cheers, Marcin
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