From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jul 26 23:43:33 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org 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 64B0416A4E0 for ; Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:43:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from spork@bway.net) Received: from mail.bway.net (xena.bway.net [216.220.96.26]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D88A843D4C for ; Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:43:32 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from spork@bway.net) Received: (qmail 78777 invoked by uid 0); 26 Jul 2006 23:43:31 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO office-dhcp-32.bway.net) (spork@bway.net@216.220.107.32) by smtp.bway.net with (DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA encrypted) SMTP; 26 Jul 2006 23:43:31 -0000 Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 19:37:09 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Sprickman To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20060726191054.O61085@sporker.bway.net> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Subject: 3Ware 9500SX vs. Old Fibre Channel X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Jul 2006 23:43:33 -0000 Hi all, I'm looking for a little help on making a hardware decision here. I'm going to be upgrading an existing mail server and I have a certain amount of things on-hand. I essentially have two options as far as storage goes: -3Ware 9500SX 12 port RAID card -9 ~250MB SATA-II drives (to start - 1 as hot spare) -new 3U case w/12 hot-swap bays Total cost there is about $2200. The performance of the 3Ware/SATA solution is more than adequate for our needs... There are some reliability issues with SATA vs. SCSI/FC, but the drives are cheap enough that hot spares are an option to mitigate that. I've also been very happy with the reliability of the 3Ware management apps - no problems replacing drives without a reboot. I can't say the same for the Adaptec stuff so far. -FC RAID card -OR FC HBA, no RAID + gvinum -2 old NetApp FC shelves totalling ~0.5TB (have on-hand) -new 2U case Total cost there is about $700-$??? While I would like to use the freebie NetApp shelves, who knows how much life is left in them. I also am not too sure on what (if any) currently shipping FC RAID HBAs are supported well under FreeBSD 6.1. I do have a handful of the 9500SX cards which are outperforming most of my Adaptec SCSI RAID HBAs... I'm guessing a new FC RAID HBA is going to be upwards of $1K. Some interesting used Mylex product is available for a few hudred bucks, and I'd not be comfortable not having a spare laying around. Some have mentioned gvinum, but I'm wondering how rough it would be too set that up with 14 drives in a RAID 1+0 config. Anyone here doing that? Any opinions on these options? Thanks, Charles ___ Charles Sprickman NetEng/SysAdmin Bway.net - New York's Best Internet - www.bway.net spork@bway.net - 212.655.9344