From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 21 14:33:28 2004 Return-Path: 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 BB26E16A4E7; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:33:28 +0000 (GMT) Received: from av7-1-sn1.fre.skanova.net (av7-1-sn1.fre.skanova.net [81.228.11.113]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6DADF43D48; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:33:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from daniel_k_eriksson@telia.com) Received: by av7-1-sn1.fre.skanova.net (Postfix, from userid 502) id C15A037E6C; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:33:27 +0200 (CEST) Received: from smtp3-2-sn1.fre.skanova.net (smtp3-2-sn1.fre.skanova.net [81.228.11.164]) by av7-1-sn1.fre.skanova.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2CC337E44; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:33:27 +0200 (CEST) Received: from sentinel (h130n1fls11o822.telia.com [213.64.66.130]) by smtp3-2-sn1.fre.skanova.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8CD9C37E51; Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:33:27 +0200 (CEST) From: "Daniel Eriksson" To: Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 16:33:18 +0200 Organization: Home Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook, Build 11.0.6353 Thread-Index: AcS3euhCpbLH04SoTROUJ4cYEorKmA== X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.00.2900.2180 cc: msmith@FreeBSD.org Subject: ciss and SmartArray 5300, performance expectations? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2004 14:33:29 -0000 Hi! I have been offered to buy a Compaq SmartArray 5300 (not sure exactly what version, I think it's the 5302/64) and some discs (14 x 36GB) that is no longer being used after an upgrade. I'm not getting it for free, so I'm only interested if it actually provides decent performance. What is the word on this controller and the support for it in FreeBSD 5.3/6.0? I understand it is supported through the ciss driver, but I have been unable to find any recent detailed discussions on how well this driver works. I did find a discussion about the lack of support for TCQ from 2002, but that's about it as far as detailed discussions go. Also, can I expect the 5300 to play nice with my non-Compaq server? It uses a Tyan Tiger MPX motherboard so it has 64bit/66MHz PCI, but I'm worried that maybe the card wants to live in a Compaq Proliant machine and won't work properly in my server (with regards to building arrays from BIOS and similar tasks). How about firmware upgrades of the card and/or the discs? Can that be done without a Proliant server? I would appreciate any information! /Daniel Eriksson