Date: Fri, 7 Jan 2005 19:42:17 +0800 From: KC Somaratne <kc.somaratne@gmail.com> To: Scott Long <scottl@freebsd.org> Cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Recommended RAID controller Message-ID: <9967ef0705010703424e9081a0@mail.gmail.com> In-Reply-To: <41DE36BE.8050205@freebsd.org> References: <9967ef0705010519435b6bbd66@mail.gmail.com> <41DE36BE.8050205@freebsd.org>
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On Fri, 07 Jan 2005 00:14:06 -0700, Scott Long <scottl@freebsd.org> wrote: > KC Somaratne wrote: > >>>Walter Vaughan wrote: > >>> > >>>I am looking to build two new servers, and > >>>plan on using freeBSD. I've read the last > >>>5 months of this list and while I haven't seen > >>>anything to scare me, I'm looking for advice on > >>>something that'll work pretty much out of the block > >>>with 5.2.1 that has pretty good tools support. > >>>I was all fired up about a Zero-channel Adaptec, > >>>but after reading it's only 4.* tools supported > >>>I not so sure. > >>>I liked what I've read about Intel's SATA > >>>raid that uses the iir driver, but again > >>>I am worried about administrative tools. > >>> > >>>Thanks > >>>-- > >> > >>Let me go through the list: > >> > >>Adaptec: > >> - There are two families of controller here. The 2010/2015 > >> ZCR cards are all that is left of the old family. It is > >> supported under 4.x and 5.x, though there are issues with > >> the management tools that require a few tricks to overcome > >> in 5.x. I'm also not terribly happy with the driver, but > >> I recently started cleaning it up. Adaptec provides no > >> support nor updates for the driver. If you have a strong > >> desire to use Adaptec ZCR, this is the only choice right now, > >> but a lot of people use it and are happy with it. > >> - The newer family of cards is a bit better in my opinion. > >> Adaptec hasn't released a newer version of the management > >> app for FreeBSD in several years, but the one that shipped > >> with the 5400S will work for all cards in the family. > >> Alternatively, the Linux CLI tool that Adaptec does ship > >> will work under FreeBSD in linux emulation mode. The driver > >> is well maintained. > >> > >>Intel: > >> - The ICP/Vortex/Intel controllers are actually owned and > >> produced by Adaptec now. The driver is fairly good and is > >> actively maintained by the vendor. A management app is > >> available for FreeBSD, but it will not work with FreeBSD 5.2.x > >> due to an inadvertent IOCTL incompatibility. I have changes > >> from the vendor pending right now that should hopefully fix > >> this for 5.3. In the mean time, the patch that I committed to > >> 5.2-CURRENT last month should work ok. > >> > >>AMI/LSI MegaRAID: > >> - This hardware used to be well supported, but the vendor no > >> longer provides regular updates. I don't know whether a > >> management app exists or not, though I doubt that it does. > >> > >>3Ware: > >> - Both the 6xxx/7xxx/8xxx and the 9xxx generation cards are > >> actively supported on FreeBSD by the vendor and are used by a > >> large, well-known web portal company. Not sure what the > >> status of management apps are. > >> > >>Compaq CISS: > >> - Driver is well supported by the FreeBSD community and is popular > >> amoung users. > >> > >>IBM ServeRAID: > >> - IBM provided an initial driver, and work has gone on over the > >> past year to clean it up and make it more robust. It only exists > >> for 5.x, but backporting it to 4.x would only take a few days. > >> No management app exists, nor can the Linux apps run on FreeBSD. > >> This hardware is owned and produced by Adaptec also. > >> > >>If I were to go the ZCR route right now, it would likely be with the > >>Intel card. I've just started playing with them, and it has been a > >>generally positive experience. The fact that they actively support > >>FreeBSD is a big plus. For SATA, it would be a toss-up between 3ware > >>and Adaptec. For U320 SCSI that you can buy in the channel (as opposed > >>to only buying from the vendor), Adaptec probably wins. > >> > >>Scott > > > > > > Hi, > > > > With respect to the support for the IBM ServeRAID cards, has there been a change > > of status since then. I am looking at getting two IBM servers with ServeRAID-6M > > cards to run 5.3-R. > > > > Also, are there any management apps available in 5.3 for the ServeRAID-6M card? > > > > thanks n rgds, > > -kc. > > There really is no way to monitor or manage a serveraid card under > FreeBSD. IBM/Adaptec seems to have no interest in releasing specs or > porting their apps, and there is no way to make the linux apps work. > > Scott > Hi, Do I have any other choices of well supported SCSI RAID cards that I can use on a IBM eServer xSeries255 that you can recommend to use with FreeBSD 5.3-R? Thnks in advance, -kc.
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