From owner-freebsd-fs@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Mar 19 21:09:57 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:1900:2254:206a::19:1]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CAA6351D for ; Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:09:57 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jas@cse.yorku.ca) Received: from bronze.cs.yorku.ca (bronze.cs.yorku.ca [130.63.95.34]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 96EBE775 for ; Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:09:57 +0000 (UTC) Received: from [130.63.97.125] (ident=jas) by bronze.cs.yorku.ca with esmtpsa (TLSv1:CAMELLIA256-SHA:256) (Exim 4.76) (envelope-from ) id 1UI3CU-0001ko-DQ for freebsd-fs@freebsd.org; Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:32:02 -0400 Message-ID: <5148CB42.6090001@cse.yorku.ca> Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 16:32:02 -0400 From: Jason Keltz User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; Linux i686 on x86_64; rv:17.0) Gecko/20130307 Thunderbird/17.0.4 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org Subject: best freebsd version for zfs file server References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Score: -1.0 X-Spam-Level: - X-Spam-Report: Content preview: Hi. I hope to soon put into production a new file server hosting many ZFS filesystem with FreeBSD. The system has 2 x 9205-8e cards, and 1 x 9207-8i card and 24 x 900 GB 10K RPM drives. I'm trying to figure out what is ultimately the "best" version of FreeBSD to run on a production file server. I believe that it doesn't make sense to stick directly to the 9.1/release because there have already been many ZFS problems that were solved in 9.1/stable. On the other hand, stable doesn't necessarily have to be "stable"! Of course "release" might not be "stable" either if there's a bug that say, causes a hang on my controller card, and it's not fixed in anything but "stable"! Yet, "stable" might "break" something else. I'm wondering what people who are running FreeBSD file servers in production do -- do you track individual changes, and compile release + individual bug fixes that likely affect you, or, in my case, if I run "stable", do all my testing with "stable", do I run that version of stable, and only attempt to upgrade to the next "stable" release while very carefully reviewing the bug list, then holding my breath when the server comes up? Any recommendations would be appreciated. I know there are a lot of people who are happily running FreeBSD file servers. :) [...] Content analysis details: (-1.0 points, 5.0 required) pts rule name description ---- ---------------------- -------------------------------------------------- -0.0 SHORTCIRCUIT Not all rules were run, due to a shortcircuited rule -1.0 ALL_TRUSTED Passed through trusted hosts only via SMTP X-BeenThere: freebsd-fs@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: Filesystems List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 19 Mar 2013 21:09:57 -0000 Hi. I hope to soon put into production a new file server hosting many ZFS filesystem with FreeBSD. The system has 2 x 9205-8e cards, and 1 x 9207-8i card and 24 x 900 GB 10K RPM drives. I'm trying to figure out what is ultimately the "best" version of FreeBSD to run on a production file server. I believe that it doesn't make sense to stick directly to the 9.1/release because there have already been many ZFS problems that were solved in 9.1/stable. On the other hand, stable doesn't necessarily have to be "stable"! Of course "release" might not be "stable" either if there's a bug that say, causes a hang on my controller card, and it's not fixed in anything but "stable"! Yet, "stable" might "break" something else. I'm wondering what people who are running FreeBSD file servers in production do -- do you track individual changes, and compile release + individual bug fixes that likely affect you, or, in my case, if I run "stable", do all my testing with "stable", do I run that version of stable, and only attempt to upgrade to the next "stable" release while very carefully reviewing the bug list, then holding my breath when the server comes up? Any recommendations would be appreciated. I know there are a lot of people who are happily running FreeBSD file servers. :) Jason. On 03/19/2013 03:04 PM, Dmitry Morozovsky wrote: > On Tue, 19 Mar 2013, Tom Evans wrote: > >>> I'm currently in process of making new backup server, based on LSI 9260 >>> controller. I'm planning to use ZFS over disks, hence the most natural way >>> seems to configure mfi to JBOD mode - but I can't find easy way to reach this, >>> neither in BIOS utilities nor via MegaCli >> 9260 should be SAS-2008 based, so mps(4) not mfi(4). > Well, it at least detected by stable/9 GENERIC as mfi > >> The internet[1] suggests that this card should be flashable to a >> 9211-8i with IT mode firmware, which is just about the ultimate ZFS >> card, instant-JBOD on inserting a disk, passthru for SMART, high >> performance, etc. > Will check, thanks for the reference. > >> [1] http://blog.grem.de/sysadmin/LSI-SAS2008-Flashing-2012-04-12-22-17.html >>