From owner-freebsd-hardware Thu Dec 16 16:54:19 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from dns.sonntag.org (dns.sonntag.org [216.140.186.114]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 97CBB14CB1; Thu, 16 Dec 1999 16:53:41 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from aaron@sonntag.org) Received: from aaron (cs2744-250.austin.rr.com [24.27.44.250]) by dns.sonntag.org (8.9.3/8.9.3) with SMTP id SAA37276; Thu, 16 Dec 1999 18:53:22 -0600 (CST) (envelope-from aaron@sonntag.org) From: "Aaron Sonntag" To: "Mike Smith" Cc: Subject: RE: SCSI RAID controller support Date: Thu, 16 Dec 1999 18:52:17 -0600 Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook IMO, Build 9.0.2416 (9.0.2910.0) X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.00.2314.1300 Importance: Normal In-Reply-To: <199912162332.PAA01657@mass.cdrom.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Yeah the Dell rep was telling me that the Adaptec controller was an OEM based on the 7897 chipset. I am not going to be allowed to run 4.x on this server. I will be able to run 3.4 when it is on CD later this month. Will this help? I also did not plan on booting from the RAID controller. I had planned on doing software mirroring on the SCSI boot drives and the RAID5 on the hardware controller. Will this allow me to use the Dell/Adaptec controller at all? I read in some FreeBSD documentation that the 7897 chipset was supported... but I guess not in a RAID controller? Based upon what you said I can at least use the AMI controller with 3.4 if I don't mind booting off a different controller right? I hate to drag this out but a lot of money is involved (relatively) and I really only have one shot at this. Thanks for your help thus far! One more question. Is there any vendor like Dell or SAG that is FreeBSD friendly? Aaron -----Original Message----- From: Mike Smith [mailto:msmith@FreeBSD.ORG] Sent: Thursday, December 16, 1999 5:33 PM To: Aaron Sonntag Cc: FreeBSD-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: > I am looking at getting my hands on a couple of Dell PowerEdge 4300 servers. > In both of these boxes I must spec a hardware RAID controller. I basically > have two choices. > > First is a multi-channel controller that has the Adaptec 7897 chipset. It > is a 4 channel controller. > http://support.dell.com/docs/storage/obsidian/specs.htm This is an Adaptec aac-364 with a Dell label on it. It's only supported under NT. > The second is an American Megatrends based controller. It is only 1 > channel. > http://support.dell.com/docs/storage/perc2sc/specs.htm This is an AMI MegaRAID 466. We support this under the 4.x branch. > I have read conflicting statements in the list archives about whether I can > make these puppies run. Can I get either one of these to work without much > rigging? If both can be used... which one is better/easier and more likely > to work well? If you want to use FreeBSD, you need the PERC 2/SC. If you want to run 3.x, you will either need a separate boot volume (eg. another SCSI disk or an IDE disk), or you'll need to wait a little while for boot/install support in the 3.x family. FreeBSD 4.0 will install directly onto this controller, and if you're interested you can grab a snapshot and try it out. > On a completely separate note... > anybody have opinions on the best high end video card for x-windows? Voodoo 3 or Matrox G400. -- \\ Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. \\ Mike Smith \\ Tell him he should learn how to fish himself, \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ and he'll hate you for a lifetime. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message