Date: Sat, 22 Sep 2012 11:39:27 +0300 From: Theodor-Iulian Ciobanu <thciobanu@nth.ro> To: "Pepe (Jose) Amengual" <jose.amengual@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-hardware <freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: Which one has better support for FreeBSD , LSI or Areca ? with multiport support Message-ID: <20120922113927.00007ff3@unknown> In-Reply-To: <CAGrZ=dfVtBR4Gf1on8fkt5wYUoFWQmb0E5ZiYitZN6HQ1if4YQ@mail.gmail.com> References: <CAGrZ=dfVtBR4Gf1on8fkt5wYUoFWQmb0E5ZiYitZN6HQ1if4YQ@mail.gmail.com>
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On Fri, 21 Sep 2012 13:25:22 -0700 "Pepe (Jose) Amengual" <jose.amengual@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Guys. > > I have a super micro server with this controller : > > http://www.addonics.com/products/adsa3gpx8-4e.php <http://Addonics > Controler> > > Connected to and Addonics storage rack via 4 eSata ports and port > multipliers to 10 disks using ZFS. > > It has been working fine but lately I have been experience some > issues with channel timeout and disk just disappearing from the pool. > I already posted another thread about that but looks like no one has > clue about what the errors means so I decided to swap controllers > with a spare one and same issue. > > So now I have decided to buy a real controller, Areca or LSI for the > server but I need one that is port multiplier compatible and with > external esata connectors. > > I just one a very good controller ( not super expensive) that has good > drivers for freebsd and that can give me reliable tools to diagnose > hardrive failures and diagnostics. > > I have the possibility to move to iSCSI too using an addonics module > for that so I could move to a different setup but I don't know is I > will have any benefit on I/O speed doing that or not. > > If someone can give me some advice I will really appreciate. > > Thanks. After moving away from Windows I also moved away from Areca, as I found poor support for it, although the drivers are official: - no hotplug (new discs were not picked up automatically, I had to reboot) - low transfer speeds (I found it bottlenecking at ~200MB/s, with Ultrastar 3TB discs being detected as SATA1) And Areca is actually the reason I moved to FreeBSD in the first place. After the v1.49 firmware update on my 1280s and 1880s, rebuild times increased to unacceptable values (what would before take ~1day would now require 1-2 weeks). When contacted, Areca's support told me they didn't notice any slowdowns with the latest fw version, any problems I had must be on my part. So I gave up on hardware raid and moved to ZFS. And if you really want to be pedantic about it, Areca are using LSI chipsets as well now, so why not just buy directly from them? -- Theo
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