From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Oct 26 21:34:39 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CAAF316A4CF for ; Tue, 26 Oct 2004 21:34:39 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail.faerunconsulting.com (vadsl-pppoe-jcnj-cst-216-182-31-61.tellurian.net [216.182.31.61]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with SMTP id 0D7F943D1F for ; Tue, 26 Oct 2004 21:34:39 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from me@carrollkong.com) Received: (qmail 21019 invoked from network); 26 Oct 2004 21:34:38 -0000 Received: from unknown (HELO athena) (192.168.0.2) by dmz.faerunhome.com with SMTP; 26 Oct 2004 21:34:38 -0000 Message-ID: <0ade01c4bba3$986c1520$0200a8c0@athena> From: "Carroll Kong" To: References: <417E6F2A.9020508@borderware.com> <1127.209.152.53.188.1098822627.squirrel@209.152.53.188> <6.1.2.0.0.20041026165755.03ab35f0@64.7.153.2> Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 17:34:32 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal X-Mailer: Microsoft Outlook Express 5.50.4942.400 X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V5.50.4942.400 Subject: Re: 3ware raid X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 26 Oct 2004 21:34:40 -0000 Interesting. I have 3 3Ware 7xxxs. (2 7500-4LP, 1 7450) The 7450 one on a busy server is experiencing some pretty nasty problems. You can google for the thread with this subject. 3ware 7506, FreeBSD 4.x, Maxtor Disks & SMART Problem So far, once we backed off on the I/O load and as a result, the system has been running solid. I have not fully identified the problem, but I here is a list of things to watch out for 1) Do not use "hot swap"/"cold swap" systems. I agree with Mike now, and I believe I am paying the price for using a cold swap system. We plan on replacing the IDE backplane in hopes that it will resolve the issue. I am guessing nice swap systems are reserved for SCSI SCA for now. 2) Avoid using riser cards if you can. 3Ware claims to have fixed their issues, but put up the usual "cover your [butt]" disclaimers. Better safe than sorry, avoid using a riser card if you can. 3) Avoid using Maxtor disks with it. Yes, I know a lot of people have it working fine. Heck, my 2 7500-4LPs are working fine with Maxtors throughout. (2 in RAID1 under Win2k, 4 in RAID10 under FreeBSD 4.X) But, if you have a choice why risk it? 4) Monitor the system carefully. Apparently in DEGRADED mode, the system has a high chance of complete lockups if left unattended. It is important to note that the 3Ware controller is very sensitive. People have gone into DEGRADED mode randomly because of slight power drops or "bad" IDE cabling. Of course, your mileage may vary. I will let you know if the backplane swap out fixes everything. For now, we want to enjoy some real uptime and hold off on the upgrade as long as we can. - Carroll Kong ----- Original Message ----- From: "Mike Tancsa" To: Cc: Sent: Tuesday, October 26, 2004 5:10 PM Subject: Re: 3ware raid > At 04:30 PM 26/10/2004, Darren Pilgrim wrote: > > > Hello > > > > > > I was wandering if anybody out there has had any success using 3ware > > > 7506-8 cards with Freebsd 4.10. I was previously using a Promise > > > controller SX6000, and was having problems with this card. > > > >This is something of a FAQ. > > > >There's a long list of people using 3ware 6/7/8xxx series cards in FreeBSD > >4.x boxes with great success. AFAIK that extends to 5.x as well. > > Yes, I am one who always seems to pipe up. I use this very card > specifically on a busy pop3/imap server. The mail spool is made up of 4 > drives in RAID10 and 2 other ports are used for the base OS in RAID1. Its > been in service in this config for over a year without issue. > > When it comes time to replace bad drives, all has worked as expected for > us. We dont use hot swap trays (dont really trust the electrical design of > many of them), so we do it while powered down. Literally, shutdown, pull > the bad drive, put in the new, go into the BIOS (or you can use the cmd > line tools), add the new drive to the RAID set, exit out and let it boot > and thats it. The controller rebuilds in the background and notifies you > when done. > > There were at some point a bad batch of 7000 series cards that needed to be > RMA'd (perhaps 2+ yrs ago now ?). But other than that one time hardware > issue, they work great on all the platforms we have (i386 on FreeBSD, > Linux, Win2k). > > We also use most of the other cards, except for the 9xxx series which we > have no experience with yet. > > ---Mike > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-stable@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >