From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Mar 31 22:53:17 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CA1241065673 for ; Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:53:17 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jessy@sicha.net) Received: from viefep20-int.chello.at (viefep20-int.chello.at [62.179.121.40]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 139D38FC17 for ; Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:53:16 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jessy@sicha.net) Received: from du.sicha.net ([84.113.235.172]) by viefep20-int.chello.at (InterMail vM.7.08.02.02 201-2186-121-104-20070414) with ESMTP id <20080331225315.DJGG7290.viefep20-int.chello.at@du.sicha.net>; Tue, 1 Apr 2008 00:53:15 +0200 X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at sicha.net Message-Id: <7AEB113D-8A44-447C-950A-162C0768AEDF@sicha.net> From: Robert Jesacher To: Walt Pawley In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed; delsp=yes Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Mime-Version: 1.0 (Apple Message framework v919.2) Date: Tue, 1 Apr 2008 00:52:55 +0200 References: <20080329131542.H80112@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> X-Mailer: Apple Mail (2.919.2) Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: SCSI network 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: Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:53:17 -0000 On 31.03.2008, at 21:53, Walt Pawley wrote: > On 3/29/08 1:17 PM +0100, Wojciech Puchar wrote on SCSI network > >> they are all adaptec (ahc driver) controllers - manual says it can be >> target as well as initiator > > Others have been discussing the potential speed of such an > arrangement. I'm more concerned about SCSI bus addressing being > a problem. Perhaps the statement above means that each card can > have a distinct ID on the bus. My experience with SCSI is > pretty much limited to systems where the host computer is > hardwired as device 0. If these cards are like that, they'll > likely be pretty confused about who's who. Usually you should be able to change the Host-ID (which is 7 per default), but the real issue with SCSI is, that there is always an "initiator" which connects to a "target", although this can change (as you state) its not as easy as opening an other network port. Think of it as usb, you cannot hook 2 PC's together without some special device in between (ok SCSI is a bit more flexible tough). The only things that popped up on google were pretty much outdated (around 1998), so this will not really help you. It looks like the guys played with this to overcome the fast- ethernet limit. If you really need something fast, grab some used FC switches (Brocade) with GBIC's equipped and some cheap HBA's (e.g. emulex or qlogic). In this scenario you can run FC-IP which works well. There you can choose between 1/2/4G per sec depending on the money you want to spend (4G is way off limits!) Personally I think this is a little overkill, although nice to play with. :-) If you need a cheap solution why don't you equip you PC's with FireWire cards? But ask somebody about the limitations there (IMHO you can make some sort of bus connection, but worst case it would be one-to-one connections). br, Robert