From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 14:12:41 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BC92216A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:41 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp.des.no (flood.des.no [217.116.83.31]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19AB043D1F; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:41 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from des@des.no) Received: by smtp.des.no (Pony Express, from userid 666) id 59F95530D; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:12:01 +0200 (CEST) Received: from dwp.des.no (des.no [80.203.228.37]) by smtp.des.no (Pony Express) with ESMTP id 7129F5321; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:11:54 +0200 (CEST) Received: by dwp.des.no (Postfix, from userid 2602) id 52AF6B86C; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:11:54 +0200 (CEST) To: Maxim Sobolev References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> From: des@des.no (=?iso-8859-1?q?Dag-Erling_Sm=F8rgrav?=) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:11:54 +0200 In-Reply-To: <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> (Maxim Sobolev's message of "Wed, 23 Jun 2004 13:47:56 +0300") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on flood.des.no X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL autolearn=no version=2.63 cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:41 -0000 Maxim Sobolev writes: > Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is > quite limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with > UI for setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides internal > RAID structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they provide some > persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume either in some > controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. The configuration is always stored on-disk, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to recover from controller failure. > Therefore, the same set of GEOM > RAID modules can work with different software RAID controllers (SCSI, > ATA, SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to extract this info > from the controller's driver, and present it in some common > format. That's what I am talking about. You're kicking down open doors. This problem has already been solved for Vinum, which is conceptually identical from a GEOM point of view. DES --=20 Dag-Erling Sm=F8rgrav - des@des.no