From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Mar 8 5: 6:48 2000 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from boris.netgate.net (boris.netgate.net [204.145.147.154]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C022437B82F for ; Wed, 8 Mar 2000 05:06:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wellsian@caffeine.com) Received: from localhost (wellsian@localhost) by boris.netgate.net (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id FAA30713; Wed, 8 Mar 2000 05:04:32 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from wellsian@caffeine.com) Date: Wed, 8 Mar 2000 05:04:32 -0800 (PST) From: wellsian X-Sender: wellsian@boris.netgate.net To: James Cc: Mike Tancsa , questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: RAID/config questions In-Reply-To: <38C58929.548A69C6@icorp.net> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Tue, 7 Mar 2000, James wrote: > I'm definitely interested in performance and reliability and willing > to pay more. This is for a server and not a workstation. > > I guess if I'm interested in a setup where I have 3 drives, with > approximately 2/3 of the total space available, that is RAID0+1? No, that would be RAID3, 4, or 5. RAID0+1 is striping and mirroring combined, and provides 1/2 the normal capacity of your disks for the benefit of improved performance AND reliability. Here's a "what's RAID?" page: http://www.sansite.com/RAID_basics.htm > I haven't worked with RAID before and I'd prefer my first experience > to be as painless as possible. Are there any RAID controllers/drives > specifically tuned for each other? Only when they're sold together. Really, it's more important to get a RAID controller that's "tuned" to your OS by someone who writes a nice driver. An example for FreeBSD would be one from DPT (now Adaptec). The drives pretty much just tag along. (no pun intended) That doesn't mean it isn't a good idea to get modern, matched, drives. I've seen some weird behavior from controllers that got confused by a ragtag drive collection being used across a volume. Not wanting to be the guinea pig for the controller manufacturer's test suites, I now use identical drives for any single "production" volume. So call me paranoid. > I'm hoping to get some feedback on what RAID systems users on this > list may recommend - and a good source for the products. Thanks very > much! You should get plenty. :) Most of us here like vinum(4,8). It's fast, free, and pretty reliable once you get to know it. But if you want to get up-and-running quickly I suggest you go with one of the supported RAID cards. Or, if you have the budget, use a SCSI-SCSI controller that completely isolates the RAID setup and configuration from your computer and OS. As in something like: http://www.cmd.com/brochure/crd5500.pdf Dave To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message