From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Feb 15 23:18:11 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D47C21065670 for ; Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:18:11 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from korvus@comcast.net) Received: from QMTA11.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net (qmta11.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net [76.96.59.211]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7BDC98FC24 for ; Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:18:11 +0000 (UTC) Received: from omta15.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net ([76.96.62.87]) by QMTA11.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net with comcast id iPCu1d01V1swQuc5BPJBNb; Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:18:11 +0000 Received: from [10.0.0.51] ([71.199.122.142]) by omta15.westchester.pa.mail.comcast.net with comcast id iPL11d00n34Sj4f3bPL274; Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:20:02 +0000 Message-ID: <4B79D63A.10706@comcast.net> Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 18:18:18 -0500 From: Steve Polyack User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 6.1; en-GB; rv:1.9.1.7) Gecko/20100111 Lightning/1.0b1 Thunderbird/3.0.1 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Dan Langille References: <4B786D3A.3000408@langille.org> <4B7980E0.1020907@langille.org> <4B79B6BB.1060809@comcast.net> <4B79D30D.8090901@langille.org> In-Reply-To: <4B79D30D.8090901@langille.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Content-Filtered-By: Mailman/MimeDel 2.1.5 Cc: Dan Naumov , FreeBSD-STABLE Mailing List Subject: Re: hardware for home use large storage X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 15 Feb 2010 23:18:11 -0000 On 2/15/2010 6:04 PM, Dan Langille wrote: > Steve Polyack wrote: >> On 02/15/10 12:14, Dan Langille wrote: > >>> 7. Supermicro LSI MegaRAID 8 Port SAS RAID Controller $118 > >> Dan, >> I'm not sure about that particular card, but we've never seen that >> great of performance out of the LSI MegaRAID cards that ship with >> Dell servers as the PERC. The newest incarnations are better, but I >> would try to get an Areca. The ones we have tested have displayed >> fantastic performance. They are fairly expensive in comparison, >> though. If you're using ZFS in place of the RAID on the LSI >> MegaRAID, I'd instead recommend other simpler SAS cards which are >> known to have good driver support. > > Yes, the card will be used as a straight-through and not use for RAID. > ZFS will be running raidz for me, possibly raidz2. Given that, I'm > not sure if you're suggesting the3 Areca or something else. > > In addition, I'm not sure what makes a SAS card simpler and supported. > Recommendation? > > Other cards I have considered include: > > LSI SAS3041E-R 4 port $120 > http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=lsi+sas+pcie&hl=en&cid=1824913543877548833&sa=title#p > > > SYBA SY-PEX40008 PCI Express SATA II 4 port $60 > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816124027 > > LSISAS1064 chipset -> SAS3042e > http://www.lsi.com/DistributionSystem/AssetDocument/PCIe_3GSAS_UG.pdf > > SUPERMICRO AOC-SAT2-MV8 64-bit PCI-X133MHz SATA Controller Card $99 > http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009 > All I meant by simpler was that if you're not going to use the RAID portion then you do not have to pay for it. Same goes for SAS - if you're not going to use SAS disks, you only need a SATA controller. The SYBA card you have listed works great with the siis driver (NCQ support). If you don't need SAS support, I think there are Areca cards around $100 that just do SATA w/o RAID. As far as supported, I know that the Areca driver is very good, as is the recently revamped ahci generic and siis drivers. Like I said, those newer LSI cards may be fine, but I've had bad experiences with the PERC4 and PERC5 (/LSI/ MegaRAID SAS 8408E), which are both re-branded LSI MegaRAID cards. They were always very reliable and handled failed disks quite well, but performance was often ... just bad. YMMV. The PERC6 (one of the newer generations) isn't half as bad... If you end up with one of the LSI cards, let us know how it performs ;)