From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jan 20 13:22:40 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 A2CA616A4CE for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:22:40 +0000 (GMT) Received: from szamoca.krvarr.bc.ca (s142-179-111-232.bc.hsia.telus.net [142.179.111.232]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1218843D49 for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:22:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sandy@krvarr.bc.ca) Received: from szamoca.krvarr.bc.ca (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by szamoca.krvarr.bc.ca (8.13.1/8.12.11) with ESMTP id j0KDMbNK056938 for ; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 05:22:37 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sandy@szamoca.krvarr.bc.ca) Received: (from sandy@localhost) by szamoca.krvarr.bc.ca (8.13.1/8.12.11/Submit) id j0KDMbQW056935; Thu, 20 Jan 2005 05:22:37 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from sandy) From: Sandy Rutherford MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Message-ID: <16879.45212.984246.42585@szamoca.krvarr.bc.ca> Date: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 05:22:36 -0800 To: "FreeBSD Questions" In-Reply-To: References: <41ED86F4.1080301@mykitchentable.net> X-Mailer: VM 7.07 under Emacs 21.3.1 Subject: Hardware RAID Support (was RE: One Last Plea For Vinum Assistance) 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: Thu, 20 Jan 2005 13:22:40 -0000 >>>>> On Wed, 19 Jan 2005 22:57:21 -0800, >>>>> "Ted Mittelstaedt" said: > This did teach me a lesson that I kind of knew already but > didn't think too much about. That is, a software array is no substitute > for a hardware array. ... Agreed completely, which leads me to my question. Does anybody know what the plans are for the SCSI hardware raid controllers vis a vis CAM? I have a Mylex Extreme RAID 1100, which uses the mlx(4) driver. The mlx(4) driver does not use CAM, whereas its cousin the mly(4) driver does interact with CAM. I corresponded with Michael Smith, the principal author of both drivers, a while ago and he told me that it was a pain in the neck to integrate mly(4) with CAM and he did not forsee this ever being done for mlx(2). One side-effect of this is that although the RAID setup utility for the card does allow a channel(s) to be designated a plain non-RAID SCSI channel for use by a tape drive or CDROM, the FreeBSD driver does not support this. Also, the mlxcontrol(8) facility is a little on the basic side, with most of the capabilities of the card not supported. My main point is that support for SCSI hardware RAID seems to be a bit of a dog's breakfast at the moment and are there plans to brings things together? BTW: 1. Please do not ask me to donate a card to the developers. I don't have a spare. However, I know how the game is played and I am not asking anybody to donate their time to my problems. My only serious problem was a bug in mlxcontrol, for which I submitted a PR, with a patch. 2. If anybody is looking for a hardware RAID card, I can recommend the Extreme RAID 1100. It's a triple channel U2W card. I got mine for a song on Ebay. Note that it is definitely worth the trouble to update to the latest version of the firmware. ...Sandy