From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Apr 29 05:35:54 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id FAA17405 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 05:35:54 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from horton.iaces.com (horton.iaces.com [204.147.87.98]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id FAA17389 for ; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 05:35:45 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from proot@horton.iaces.com) Received: (from proot@localhost) by horton.iaces.com (8.8.7/8.8.7) id HAA10800; Wed, 29 Apr 1998 07:32:56 -0500 (CDT) From: "Paul T. Root" Message-Id: <199804291232.HAA10800@horton.iaces.com> Subject: Re: DPT RAID controller support To: techsupport@nordicdms.com Date: Wed, 29 Apr 1998 07:32:56 -0500 (CDT) Cc: wjv@cityip.co.za, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <19980428215538430.AAA192@mail.nordicdms.com> from Dave Walton at "Apr 28, 98 02:55:38 pm" X-Organization: USWEST !nterprise Networking - ACES X-Phone: (612) 664-3385 X-Fax: (612) 664-4779 X-Page: (800) SKY-PAGE PIN: 537-7270 X-Address: 600 Stinson Blvd, Fl 1S X-Address: Minneapolis, MN 55413 X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL22 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG In a previous message, Dave Walton said: > This brings to mind something that's been puzzling me about RAID. > Whenever someone posts a question here about what RAID controllers > are supported, the standard answer is "DPT". Now, by my > understanding, the way those are set up is something like this: > > You have a bunch of drives in a box. They are all plugged into the > RAID controller. The RAID controller is plugged into a slot in the > computer. The operating system must specifically support that RAID > controller. This is 'software' RAID > That arrangement strikes me as rather inflexible and prone to > compatibility problems. It seems better to do it this way: > > You have a bunch of drives in a box. They are all plugged into the > RAID controller, which is also mounted in the box. The RAID > controller makes the array appear as a single large SCSI device, > and is connected to any standard SCSI controller in the computer. > The operating system only needs support for whatever SCSI > controller is used. And this is 'hardware' RAID > So... Am I right that this is a better way to do things, or is there > something important that I am missing? Does anyone have any > experience with hardware of that design that they can recommend? I believe that Clarion is a hardware RAID box. There probably are many others. It all depends on where you want to control things. The problem with 'hardware' RAID is you still need to have a controlling program on your host. The advantage is that it provides the processing off load from the server. I guess something like a Network Appliance gets you away from even that. I've heard a lot of good things about it, but haven't used one myself. -- "We reproach people for talking about themselves; but it is the subject they treat best." --Anatole France (1844-1924) To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message