From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Dec 9 21:42:27 2007 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E0B5616A419 for ; Sun, 9 Dec 2007 21:42:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jgrosch@juniper.net) Received: from exprod7og108.obsmtp.com (exprod7og108.obsmtp.com [64.18.2.169]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AFD4D13C448 for ; Sun, 9 Dec 2007 21:42:27 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jgrosch@juniper.net) Received: from source ([66.129.224.36]) by exprod7ob108.postini.com ([64.18.6.12]) with SMTP; Sun, 09 Dec 2007 13:42:27 PST Received: from jgrosch-mbp.local ([172.23.5.250]) by emailsmtp55.jnpr.net with Microsoft SMTPSVC(6.0.3790.1830); Sun, 9 Dec 2007 12:47:09 -0800 Message-ID: <475C543D.5080008@juniper.net> Date: Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:46:53 -0800 From: Josef Grosch Organization: Juniper Networks User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.6 (Macintosh/20070728) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Andrea Venturoli References: <475C0B52.1000108@netfence.it> In-Reply-To: <475C0B52.1000108@netfence.it> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-OriginalArrivalTime: 09 Dec 2007 20:47:09.0720 (UTC) FILETIME=[AAF3A180:01C83AA4] Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: SAS Controller again 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, 09 Dec 2007 21:42:28 -0000 Andrea Venturoli wrote: > Hello. > > In my search for a SAS controller, I've been offered an Adaptec ASR3405 > or ASR3805. These are not supported in 6.2R, but it looks like they will > be in upcoming 6.3R by the aac driver. > I'd like to know about ground experiences with these cards. Do they work > well? Does aaccli allow for production-time online check and array rebuild? > Any trouble? > > bye & Thanks > av. We use the Adaptec 3805 here at Juniper with great success. The 3805 and 15K SAS drives are damn fast. We are very happy with them, however there are a few caveat. * The Adaptec driver in FreeBSD 6.2 does not understand what a 3805 is. Adaptec has released an update to the driver in source code. It is on their web site. There are several people who work at Juniper who have the commit bit so we are going to try and get the updated driver into the tree before 6.3. In the mean time, in order to install 6.2 with a 3805 one needs to install the driver at install time off of a floppy or a USB driver. Then either copy the kernel driver into /boot/kernel or recompile the kernel with the new driver. It's a little bit of a pain but once it's you can forget about it. * The early versions of this card had a nasty bug in the firmware. When the card was put under a heavy load the card would stall and timeout. Adaptec has released an update to the firmware on their web site. The update is a bootable ISO image. Updating the firmware requires one to reboot the system with the bootable CD then updating the firmware using the supplied program. * Aaccli, which is in the ports tree, does not understand what a 3805 is. Adaptec has a replacement program on their web site but I have only played around with it and not spent a lot of time with this tool. I would guess that it has all the same functionality that aaccli had. Josef -- FreeBSD 6.2 | Josef Grosch | Last night I was laying in bed, looking up at the jgrosch@juniper.net | stars, and wondering, "Where the hell is my roof"