Date: Thu, 05 Feb 2004 21:08:46 +0100 From: Ede Wolf <listac@nebelschwaden.de> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: SATA RAID 5 controller for FreeBSD Message-ID: <4022A2CE.5040504@nebelschwaden.de> In-Reply-To: <401FE932.9060401@web.de> References: <002401c3e661$32b27c00$0c00a8c0@artem> <401FE932.9060401@web.de>
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> It does not have cache as the hard disks and the OS have. There is no need. I am by no means a RAID expert and this might be slightly off topic, but I've realized, that SCSI-Disks used in a RAID always have their write-cache disabled. Not sure why, but I guess partly for control meaning that if the controller flushes its cache, it can be sure that data is on the disk. With write cache enabled, the controler has no real knowledge of the state of the drives and may be "confused" by extremely different speeds (writing data to an empty cache on drive 1 while drive 2 is busy writing its own cache to disk). So basically the cache on the controller is an replacement for those on the drives. This may be complete bollocks, only what I've been told, but maybe someone would be so kind to clearify, since I am not aware one can disable write cache on ATA drives. Which even may not be relevant.
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