From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 20 18:27:02 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 35C6816A47D for ; Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:27:02 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from hakmi@rogers.com) Received: from smtp102.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com (smtp102.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com [206.190.36.80]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 2293343D55 for ; Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:26:59 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from hakmi@rogers.com) Received: (qmail 38890 invoked from network); 20 Jun 2006 18:26:58 -0000 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=s1024; d=rogers.com; h=Received:From:To:Subject:Date:MIME-Version:Content-Type:Content-Transfer-Encoding:X-Mailer:In-Reply-To:X-MimeOLE:Thread-Index; b=BwkZpCS9zbJVkg+9sfgc/faKIB2MbJ/Pq218r69gSI3GAt4B7eImAATM7nik9cAz+9nWiH8b3MuolLwzTSHE46sBZ/70ZKvGhlREmMF1Wv9O2GoEbbmTcgn5ZUXp/qoRKmkhV5s8LvEZ//FEwvJO7/CZBKDv4riLvvxrXlXWAFI= ; Received: from unknown (HELO tamouh) (hakmi@rogers.com@70.27.160.99 with login) by smtp102.rog.mail.re2.yahoo.com with SMTP; 20 Jun 2006 18:26:58 -0000 From: "Tamouh H." To: Date: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 14:26:57 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353 In-Reply-To: <6C0CF58A187DA5479245E0830AF84F4218CCFC@poweredge.attiksystem.ch> X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2869 Thread-Index: AcaTml0aO6mRpUdjTomBSIsQLMEZOQA61I9AAAQ3NSA= Message-Id: <20060620182659.2293343D55@mx1.FreeBSD.org> Subject: RE: ICH5R, ICH7R or Promise PDC20378 RAID? 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: Tue, 20 Jun 2006 18:27:02 -0000 =20 > 1) With the Promise controller, after simulating a disk=20 > problem (shutdown - disk disconnection - reboot - shutdown -=20 > disk reconnection - reboot), I wasn't able to rebuild the=20 > array at all, either with "atacontrol rebuild ar0" or from=20 > the bios. I suspect a spare disk is necessary for a complete rebuild. >=20 > 2) With the ICH5R controller, installation went fine too. If=20 > I disconnect a disk, the system still boots, but when I plug=20 > the disk back (computer shut down), no boot is possible=20 > anymore. At boot, a kernel panic says:=20 > "softdep_setup_inomapdep". No array rebuild is possible from=20 > the bios, so I'm stuck. >=20 >=20 > I use freebsd 6.1 RELEASE, with the latest BIOS for the=20 > motherboard, and > 2 SATA 1.0 Western Digital 160GB disks. I'm trying to=20 > configure RAID 1. >=20 > I'm surprised I have so many problems. Am I doing anything=20 > wrong? With INTEL hardware controllers for SCSI disks, I=20 > never had any problems until now. Does anyone successfully=20 > use another ASUS board, and is able to rebuild the array,=20 > without rebooting? >=20 Few things I noticed about the on-board Promise chipset on ASUS that it = is very poorly designed. If you do the unplug/replug test, it most = likely won't work, you need to use a spare drive or re-format the drive = and then replug it. It also goes out of sync very often, so you want to make sure you're = running consistency checks at least once a month. Sometimes when one of the RAID-1 drives develops bad sectors, the whole = array won't boot until you unplug one of the drives, and plug a spare = one. My conclusion, if you need something stable, don't use the onboard raid, = get a RAID card even the cheap ones will do better job!! Tamouh