From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 29 15:50:20 2004 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 C515D16A4CE for ; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:50:20 +0000 (GMT) Received: from wproxy.gmail.com (wproxy.gmail.com [64.233.184.202]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6EE9E43D2F for ; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:50:20 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from nomadlogic@gmail.com) Received: by wproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id 68so609165wri for ; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:50:10 -0700 (PDT) DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:references; b=gj5b90ggRMw+iYIXoV+nMAY1zwQVKamps4RSSHDHMLZ5yY+CbVLuSi1biV2hB+y/YGllJ4fRl7/eRzXbVehwvQqtoeC9MEMUEI78ibfSBlAvinmWJpK6HUZjNJwLSZWohN6fJ06MY59/YPwKkzknYg45AqBHg/k/06xF890dEEk= Received: by 10.38.15.26 with SMTP id 26mr1012666rno; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:50:09 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.14.69 with HTTP; Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:50:09 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <57d710000410290850280f4418@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 08:50:09 -0700 From: pete wright To: "Thordur I." In-Reply-To: <4131CFF8.6010608@mi.is> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable References: <4130ED88.8070200@mi.is> <4131CFF8.6010608@mi.is> cc: Subhro cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Software or hardware RAID1. (gstripe) X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: pete wright List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 29 Oct 2004 15:50:21 -0000 On Sun, 29 Aug 2004 12:45:44 +0000, Thordur I. wrote: > Subhro wrote: >=20 > >On Sat, 28 Aug 2004 20:39:36 +0000, Thordur I. wrote: > > > > > > > >>I think I will go for a hardware raid controler (RAID5 sounds good, but > >>my budget doesn=B4t really allow me to buy 2x new disks ;). > >> > >> > > > >Well, I would say... postpond your RAID for a few weeks and gather the > >money to buy the disks. On a mission critical system, a RAID -5 is > >really worth in both stability, performance and fault tolerance. > > > > > > > >>Btw. What hardware raid controlers (sata) do you listmembers recommend = ? > >> > >> > > > >There are very few things which really dont work under FreeBSD. Just > >some work out of the box and some needs a little attention like a > >misbehaved kid. The fact is, the more bucks you throw in, the better > >facilities u get. > > > > > > > >>I have read some positive things about the 3ware 9xxx and 8xxx series (= a > >>thread on -stable) > >> > >> > > > >Yeh, they work almost out of the box without any requirement for tweakin= g. > > > > > > > Actually, my situation is not "mission-critcal", still in a way it is. I > have decided to go for a RAID5 controler (3ware 9xxxx) and simple wait a > few weeks until I have gatherd the funds :) >=20 i have used the 3ware cards in various production environments and have a comments. They seem to work pretty well in a RAID5 config, altho I would not suggest using them in a stripe. The cache on the controller is just too small. You may see some negative impacts of the small cache in a RAID5 config under heavy I/O loads but with RAID5 slower I/O performance is to be expected. I believe the Adaptec IDE cards have a larger cache on the board, altho I'm not %100 on this. On the bright side the 3ware cards are pretty common and the "twe" driver seems rock solid on 4.x. I have not had a chance to play with the 9xxxx cards so I do not know how stable the driver for that device is. > When you say "almost" out of the box what do you mean ? > I think I=B4m right when I say that there are drivers ready for the 3ware > cards so I do not see why there are any proplems besides overstepping > the learning curve. >=20 In my experience if you have the driver enabled in your kernel (twe for the older 3ware cards) then the disk devices should be recognized. You actually build/configure the RAID's on the cards firmware before you load the OS, so there should not be *too* much to do w/in FreeBSD itself. > Anyway I think you and the other listmembers again for there input. >=20 have fun! -p >=20 > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.o= rg" >=20 --=20 ~~o0OO0o~~ Pete Wright www.nycbug.org NYC's *BSD User Group