From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 10 15:24:54 2008 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 A67A01065689 for ; Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:24:54 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonicy@otenet.gr) Received: from kane.otenet.gr (kane.otenet.gr [195.170.0.77]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 195888FC0C for ; Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:24:53 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sonicy@otenet.gr) Received: from atlantis.dyndns.org (athedsl-4367213.home.otenet.gr [79.130.19.93]) by kane.otenet.gr (8.13.8/8.13.8/Debian-3) with ESMTP id m5AFOqnQ024810; Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:24:52 +0300 Message-ID: <484E9CC4.8000904@otenet.gr> Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 18:24:52 +0300 From: Manolis Kiagias User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (X11/20080607) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Wojciech Puchar References: <484EACEB.7169.43FE1258@iwrtech.iwr.ru.ac.za> <20080610145926.GA66984@owl.midgard.homeip.net> <484E9925.2050507@otenet.gr> <20080610171352.T75322@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> In-Reply-To: <20080610171352.T75322@wojtek.tensor.gdynia.pl> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org, DA Forsyth Subject: Re: xRAID disks.... 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: Tue, 10 Jun 2008 15:24:54 -0000 Wojciech Puchar wrote: >> >> I recently removed one pair of disks from a windows "hardware :)" >> RAID controller, and upon inserting it into a newly built FreeBSD >> system, it was immediately detected by the ar driver, and messages >> started coming in, like > > is there actually any difference in ar and gmirror/gstripe except that > ar is simpler, takes only whole drives and use "hardware RAID ;)" > compatible headers ? > >> make the disks forget about their previous RAID-life: >> >> atacontrol delete ar0 >> >> Have a look at man atacontrol. I have not tried it, but it is >> probably worth a try. > > I've used gmirror on several occasions, and it works well for me. I have never used ar, but as I understand this is limited to ata disks (hence ar=atapi raid). The geom framework probably provides a lot more features and is not limited the way ar is. I would not mind using ar in this particular system, but I moved disks one by one, erasing the first one (ar was still complaining about the other one missing after I erased it) and when I later added the second one, I got a kernel panic. Mind you, the ar "signature" or whatever was written in a windows system and may not have been exactly compatible. I removed ar from the kernel and continued with my usual gmirror stuff (which works flawlessly)