From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Mar 18 09:30:24 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AF4451065679 for ; Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:30:24 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from matt@webcontracts.co.uk) Received: from batfink.vm.bytemark.co.uk (batfink.vm.bytemark.co.uk [80.68.95.231]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 728338FC14 for ; Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:30:24 +0000 (UTC) Received: from www.webcontracts.co.uk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by batfink.vm.bytemark.co.uk (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6AD764005; Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:30:22 +0000 (GMT) Received: from 212.159.19.37 (SquirrelMail authenticated user mlaw) by www.webcontracts.co.uk with HTTP; Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:30:22 -0000 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: <23ed14b81003180137n61261b5axa22677a0a7bbe544@mail.gmail.com> References: <23ed14b81003180137n61261b5axa22677a0a7bbe544@mail.gmail.com> Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:30:22 -0000 From: "Matthew Law" To: "Andy Wodfer" User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.19 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain;charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Priority: 3 (Normal) Importance: Normal Cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: Hardware RAID controller questions - 3Ware vs RocketRaid X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list Reply-To: matt@webcontracts.co.uk List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 09:30:24 -0000 On Thu, March 18, 2010 8:37 am, Andy Wodfer wrote: > Hi, > We're setting up two backup servers where each server will have about 4TB > of > harddrives (for now) connected (4x1TB and 8x500GB drives). Last night we > ran > into trouble with the 3ware controllers we have (9650SE-8LPML) because we > couldn't create a larger RAID5 than 1.99TB. > > We are going to use FreeBSD 8.0 and Bacula, but first we obviously need to > create a working RAID. > > My questions are: > > - Are HighPoint RocketRaid controllers a good alternative to 3ware > controllers? Are RocketRaid controllers true hardware RAID? > > - What should we look for in a RAID controller spec to see that it has > support for larger than 2TB RAIDs? > > I've been looking at these: > http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr2300.htm > http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr3500.htm > > Any FreeBSD recommendations? Or perhaps for another 3ware controller? > > We're using SATAII drives. > > Thanks for your help! Is ZFS not an option? - you could save yourself a lot of money and hassle with hardware RAID by moving to ZFS. Either using onboard SATA ports on the motherboard (and accept that you might have to shutdown the box to swap failed disks out) or get a simple 8-port HBA in JBOD mode, e.g: http://www.lsi.com/channel/products/hba/sas_sata_hbas/internal/lsisas3081er/index.html You'll need plenty of RAM too, but IMHO it is worth the trade. HTH, Matt.