From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 16 14:58:11 2005 Return-Path: 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 7448D16A4CE for ; Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:58:11 +0000 (GMT) Received: from prosporo.hedron.org (hedron.org [66.11.182.60]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1822343D46 for ; Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:58:11 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ean@hedron.org) Received: from www.hedron.org (localhost.hedron.org [127.0.0.1]) by prosporo.hedron.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ACBC5C12A; Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:58:17 -0500 (EST) Received: from 216.220.59.169 (SquirrelMail authenticated user ean); by www.hedron.org with HTTP; Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:58:17 -0500 (EST) Message-ID: <3604.216.220.59.169.1108565897.squirrel@216.220.59.169> In-Reply-To: <20050216065700.GB20992@cowbert.2y.net> References: <20050216065700.GB20992@cowbert.2y.net> Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 09:58:17 -0500 (EST) From: "Ean Kingston" To: "Peter C. Lai" User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.3a X-Mailer: SquirrelMail/1.4.3a MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: vinum vs. DPT smartcacheIV raid X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 14:58:11 -0000 > I have a box with DPT PM2044 SmartCacheIV UW-SCSI PCI cards which can do > RAID-5 in hardware, but I'd have to use the DOS volume manager to set up > the array. I have heard reports that vinum woudl be faster than using the > native card. Is this true? Doubtful, though I have heard that there are some rare special circumstances where software raid can be faster. Given your hardware, you will probably not experience those conditions. > Should I not bother with doing the hardware > raid > and just go with vinum? Use the hardware RAID, especially if you are going to use a simple RAID configuration (like one big RAID-5 virtual disk). Just make sure you have some way of figuring out if one of the disks goes bad. Worst case you could boot off a DOS floppy once in a while to make sure all the disks are still good. > The rest of the system is a k6-2 400mhz with 256mb ram (amount might > change). > I will also have moderate network i/o on the pci bus (obviously). -- Ean Kingston E-Mail: ean_AT_hedron_DOT_org URL: http://www.hedron.org/