From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Feb 16 15:16:16 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 83A0E16A4CE for ; Wed, 16 Feb 2005 15:16:16 +0000 (GMT) Received: from cowbert.2y.net (d46h180.public.uconn.edu [137.99.46.180]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E529943D58 for ; Wed, 16 Feb 2005 15:16:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sirmoo@cowbert.2y.net) Received: (qmail 23654 invoked by uid 1001); 16 Feb 2005 15:16:15 -0000 Date: Wed, 16 Feb 2005 10:16:15 -0500 From: "Peter C. Lai" To: Ean Kingston Message-ID: <20050216151615.GD20992@cowbert.2y.net> References: <20050216065700.GB20992@cowbert.2y.net> <3604.216.220.59.169.1108565897.squirrel@216.220.59.169> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <3604.216.220.59.169.1108565897.squirrel@216.220.59.169> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i 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 15:16:16 -0000 On Wed, Feb 16, 2005 at 09:58:17AM -0500, Ean Kingston wrote: > > > 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. The reason I asked is because http://www.shub-internet.org/brad/FreeBSD/vinum.html suggests vinum can be marginally better than the hardware raid on the smartraid range of cards (which have an even faster processor onboard than the smartcache range). The CPU platform is more or less comparable. Then again it is with old Fbsd, so I don't know how accurate that is. > > > 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/ > -- Peter C. Lai University of Connecticut Dept. of Molecular and Cell Biology Yale University School of Medicine SenseLab | Research Assistant http://cowbert.2y.net/