From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 30 20:57:44 2005 Return-Path: X-Original-To: questions@freebsd.org 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 7B38416A41C; Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:57:44 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from djh@nebcorp.com) Received: from ratchet.nebcorp.com (ratchet.nebcorp.com [205.217.153.72]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6331243D1F; Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:57:44 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from djh@nebcorp.com) Received: by ratchet.nebcorp.com (Postfix, from userid 1014) id 2BE62D982A; Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:57:44 -0700 (PDT) Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 13:57:44 -0700 From: Danny Howard To: Simon Message-ID: <20050630205744.GN33728@ratchet.nebcorp.com> References: <42C45161.1070402@toldme.com> <20050630205128.84DFBD9825@ratchet.nebcorp.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20050630205128.84DFBD9825@ratchet.nebcorp.com> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4.2.1i X-Loop: djhoward@uiuc.edu Cc: Bob Bomar , "questions@freebsd.org" , "hardware@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: RAID Cards X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:57:44 -0000 On Thu, Jun 30, 2005 at 04:48:18PM -0400, Simon wrote: > Just because there is no monitoring tool available due to lack of > support, doesn't mean the card itself is bad. I much prefer hardware > implementation than software. True hardware RAID frees up a lot of > CPU time if you have heavy IO and software just can't keep up if you > utilize CPU intensive apps. When you have a dual Xeon setup, you are more likely to be bound by disk than CPU. And a RAID that you can not monitor is a BAD RAID. The biggest thing that bothers me about my current environment is that I have remotely-deployed machines with RAIDs and I can't tell when a disk goes bad unless I visit the datacenter. Last time I was there I had a RAID card throwing an audible alarm, even though nothing was wrong. I had to reboot a critical system to fix that. If you can implement it in software, then its worth the headaches you'll avoid with hardware dependencies. If you're concerned at CPU overhead, spend the cash you would have spent on a RAID card and upgrade your CPU. Sincerely, -danny -- http://dannyman.toldme.com/