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Date:      Fri, 01 Sep 2000 13:58:44 -0700
From:      Mike Smith <msmith@freebsd.org>
To:        Steve Kaczkowski <steve@inc.net>
Cc:        hardware@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: 3ware anyone ? 
Message-ID:  <200009012058.NAA06031@mass.osd.bsdi.com>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 01 Sep 2000 13:50:47 CDT." <39AFFA87.E86684D5@inc.net> 

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> 
> Wondering if anyone out there is using  a 3ware IDE RAID card 
> (Specifically the Escalade 6400) in a fault-tolerant setup? Doing
> some searching through the list archives it seems that the drivers
> are pretty solid but I still have a couple questions.
> 
> First off, is the array bootable without much messing around? Is it as
> simple as setting up the metadevice then going through the normal FBSD
> install and it's done or are there some gotchas I need to know about?

I've had some reports of problems in RAID10 mode, where the array doesn't 
like being installed onto until it's finished building itself out.  I'm 
working on that at the moment.

> Secondly, how well does the system's 'RAID-10' work? I realize it's not
> RAID-5, but from the info they have on their site it seems that it has 
> the same kind of functionality. Does the auto rebuild and hot sparing
> work as expected, anything weird there?

Obviously I've beaten up on it quite a bit, and it does behave pretty 
much "as expected".

> Lastly, how well does the entire system work, throughput OK, any
> data corruption and just generally would you recommend it?

If you have a little time to spend familiarising yourself with the 
controller and how it "feels", I'd definitely recommend it.

> For $250 for the 4 port ATA/66 card and with 60 gig disks coming
> in around $200 it's REALLY hard to pass it up, I just hate being
> a beta tester.. :)

Well, the driver's pretty new, and the whole ATA RAID thing is a bit of a 
new concept in some ways, so there's still a little beta-tester pain 
going around.  If you can deal with a small amount of that, and are 
willing to provide reasonable problem reports so that things can be fixed 
quickly, I'd say you'll be fine. 

And as you note, the cost issues are quite compelling. 8)

-- 
... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his
rivals and unfortunately opponents also.  But not because people want
to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force
people to take different points of view.  [Dr. Fritz Todt]




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