From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 12 10:08:12 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 88A5016A420 for ; Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:08:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bsd@bathnetworks.com) Received: from lmail.bathnetworks.co.uk (mail.bathnetworks.com [84.92.24.252]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8FD3843D46 for ; Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:08:11 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from bsd@bathnetworks.com) Received: (qmail 18926 invoked by uid 510); 12 Feb 2006 10:10:07 +0000 Received: from 84.92.24.252 by lmail.bathnetworks.co.uk (envelope-from , uid 508) with qmail-scanner-1.24-st-qms (clamdscan: 0.88/1261. spamassassin: 3.0.2. perlscan: 1.24-st-qms. Clear:RC:0(84.92.24.252):SA:0(-3.6/5.0):. Processed in 5.618841 secs); 12 Feb 2006 10:10:07 -0000 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=-3.6 required=5.0 X-Antivirus-MYDOMAIN-Mail-From: bsd@bathnetworks.com via lmail.bathnetworks.co.uk X-Antivirus-MYDOMAIN: 1.24-st-qms (Clear:RC:0(84.92.24.252):SA:0(-3.6/5.0):. Processed in 5.618841 secs Process 18906) Received: from mail.bathnetworks.com (HELO ?84.92.24.252?) (bsd@bathnetworks.com@84.92.24.252) by lmail.bathnetworks.co.uk with SMTP; 12 Feb 2006 10:10:01 +0000 From: Robert Slade To: Matt Sullivan In-Reply-To: <43EE9B3F.7050708@adelphia.net> References: <43EE9B3F.7050708@adelphia.net> Content-Type: text/plain Message-Id: <1139739001.17153.31.camel@lmail.bathnetworks.co.uk> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.4.6 (1.4.6-2) Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:10:01 +0000 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: "freebsd-questions@freebsd.org" Subject: Re: Dell 530 RAID 5 Recommendations X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 12 Feb 2006 10:08:12 -0000 On Sun, 2006-02-12 at 02:19, Matt Sullivan wrote: > I am considering using FreeBSD 6 on an old Dell Precision Workstation > 530 MT. > It has Dual Xeon 1.5 GHz CPUs, 4 x Fujitsu AIC-7892A MAJ3182M SCSI HDs, > 1 GB RDRAM, Nvidia Elsa Gloria II Pro video, Integrated 3Com NIC, > Lynksys Wireless-G USB network adapter, and Integrated > Adaptec AIC-7892 SCSI controller. > > I would like to setup RAID 5. The intended use is in my home network as > a personal SOA/J2EE/MySQL development box and family file server. > > Please review and comment on my assumptions: > 1) FreeBSD 6-STABLE has fixed any 5.X SMP issues. There was a problem but this was fixed at 5.4. There are odd reports of problems with older hardware. I have had a problem with an oldish quad Compaq machine which I have not had time to get to the bottom of. > 2) I will need an additional RAID controller card. > 3) FreeBSD has issues similar to the folks at OpenBSD (my firewall OS) > regarding Adaptec - http://www.openbsd.org/i386.html: > we do not recommend the Adaptec cards for use. > * Adaptec AAC-2622, AAC-364, AAC-3642, 2200S, 2410SA, 2610SA, > 2810SA, 21610SA Have a look at the hardware compat list at http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.0R/hardware-i386.html this may help with the raid card. > I would appreciate some recommendations with a focus on price/performance. > > Thanks, > Matt > Matt, One thought I would separate the file server support from a development machine. You may get into speed problems when heavily loaded. For my network I use 2 modest machines with large IDE drives running a HA setup as a file server. They sync to each other via a Gigbyte direct Ethernet connection and if one goes down or if off line for maintenance the other takes over. See http://linux-ha.org/ . Rob