From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Feb 8 21:50:30 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B88DC16A405; Thu, 8 Feb 2007 21:50:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jbozza@qlinksmedia.com) Received: from mail.thinkburst.com (mail.thinkburst.com [66.210.222.46]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7A0A913C4B9; Thu, 8 Feb 2007 21:50:30 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jbozza@qlinksmedia.com) Received: from mailgate.thinkburstmedia.com (gateway.thinkburstmedia.com [66.210.222.36]) by mail.thinkburst.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id D2A981CC5F; Thu, 8 Feb 2007 15:50:29 -0600 (CST) Received: from thinkburst.com (bacchus.thinkburst.com [10.1.1.25]) by mailgate.thinkburstmedia.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id A24BC17040; Thu, 8 Feb 2007 15:50:29 -0600 (CST) Content-class: urn:content-classes:message MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-MimeOLE: Produced By Microsoft Exchange V6.5.7226.0 Date: Thu, 8 Feb 2007 15:50:28 -0600 Message-ID: In-Reply-To: X-MS-Has-Attach: X-MS-TNEF-Correlator: Thread-Topic: What is a good choice of sata-ii raid controller for freebsd? Thread-Index: AcdLyRCukFd4K5PORkmu2zCEIMroWAAAHisw References: <00ad01c74b65$79db1710$0c00a8c0@Artem><20070208094620.GA9599@rink.nu><00a701c74b6e$7c3e4550$fe03a8c0@claylaptop><20070208165224.GA35610@icarus.home.lan><200702081902.l18J24Dm055927@lava.sentex.ca><20070208195410.GA38036@icarus.home.lan> From: "Jaime Bozza" To: "Charles Sprickman" , "Jeremy Chadwick" Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: RE: What is a good choice of sata-ii raid controller for freebsd? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2007 21:50:30 -0000 > They kick ass is what they are like. :) >=20 > I had a 3U box with a 12 port controller sitting next to my desk for a > few weeks and my only goal was to confuse/break the 3Ware controller. > No amount of power plug pulling, pulling multiple drives, quickly > re-arranging drives could confuse the controller. Made the SCSI stuff > we use look like absolute neurotic junk. Forgot that note - Areca handles drive "location" changes the same way. I assume this is handled by metadata on the drive. > -They added a moving part (2-wire fan, no tach) to a "mission-critical" > part. That seems real stupid. After the bearings die in 2-3 years, > what happens to your card? Does it melt or just start acting weird? > If the engineers didn't consider that, what other failure modes did=20 > their limited creativity miss? :) Strange. Our 1160 has a fan, but also had just a heatsink (no fan) that was in the box. My 1261ML was heatsink only. I believe someone asked for the feature. Both controllers monitor the fan and would notify you if the fan "died". You can turn the option on or off (off by default) if you need to. > -Availability. None of our normal dealers could get them. Availability seems to be a bit better now, but I can't answer for your dealers. > -Not many people seemed to be using them, so less feedback available > and the whole package (hardware/firmware/driver) has less exposure than > 3Ware. While the 9xxx series seem to be great (use a different driver), the "twe" cards caused me so much grief that I was afraid to try them out. We had a bunch of corruption issues (in RAID 5) with our 75xx controllers that I was never able to fix. RAID 0 or 1 seems to work just fine for them. > -3Ware answered pre-sales questions, Areca didn't. Perhaps they've changed? I spent a good hour on the phone with a tech before we purchased our first controller. This was last year sometime. > Performance and feature-wise the Areca and 3Ware seemed pretty close, > so we went with 3Ware. Everyone has their reasons - I liked the RAID 6 feature, plus the OOB management of Areca, plus my history with 3ware wasn't good. :( Jaime Bozza Qlinks Media Group