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Date:      Thu, 03 Jun 2010 17:04:27 -0400
From:      Boris Kochergin <spawk@acm.poly.edu>
To:        Jeremy Chadwick <freebsd@jdc.parodius.com>
Cc:        freebsd-stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org>, Ulrich Drolshagen <u.drolshagen@t-online.de>
Subject:   Re: Support for ICH sata raid controler
Message-ID:  <4C0818DB.1050101@acm.poly.edu>
In-Reply-To: <20100603204025.GA17762@icarus.home.lan>
References:  <201006032136.46625.u.drolshagen@t-online.de> <20100603204025.GA17762@icarus.home.lan>

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Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> On Thu, Jun 03, 2010 at 09:36:46PM +0200, Ulrich Drolshagen wrote:
>   
>> we are about to aquire a new Primergy TX150. I can not find any information on 
>> support of the Intel ICHx sata raid controller in the Hardware Notes of 8-
>> Stable. Does anybody know?
>>     
>
> All revisions of the ICHxx series are supported (ICH3 to ICH10 I can
> confirm).
>
> If you plan on using the RAID functionality of the chipset (otherwise
> known as "MatrixRAID" or "Matrix Storage Technology"), don't bother[1].
>
> Instead, enable AHCI on the controller (usually in the system BIOS) and
> use one of FreeBSD (software/OS-level) RAID/RAID-like implementations
> such as gmirror, gvinum, or ZFS.
>
> I'd also recommend using ahci.ko instead of ataahci.ko for AHCI support.
> achi.ko provides a AHCI/SATA-to-CAM translation layer (which means you
> gain benefits like NCQ; disks show up as adaX), while ataahci.ko (the
> default) does not use CAM (and does not support NCQ; disks show up as
> adX).
>
> You can use ahci.ko by placing 'ahci_load="yes"' in /boot/loader.conf,
> or when booting a FreeBSD installation medium, dropping to the loader
> prompt and typing "load ahci" then "boot".
>
> [1]: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Matrix_RAID
>   
While it probably won't be done in time to be immediately useful to the 
original poster, I am working on a GEOM-based ataraid replacement that 
will behave better.

-Boris



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