Date: Fri, 07 Jan 2005 00:14:06 -0700 From: Scott Long <scottl@freebsd.org> To: KC Somaratne <kc.somaratne@gmail.com> Cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Recommended RAID controller Message-ID: <41DE36BE.8050205@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <9967ef0705010519435b6bbd66@mail.gmail.com> References: <9967ef0705010519435b6bbd66@mail.gmail.com>
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KC Somaratne wrote: >>>Walter Vaughan wrote: >>> >>>I am looking to build two new servers, and >>>plan on using freeBSD. I've read the last >>>5 months of this list and while I haven't seen >>>anything to scare me, I'm looking for advice on >>>something that'll work pretty much out of the block >>>with 5.2.1 that has pretty good tools support. >>>I was all fired up about a Zero-channel Adaptec, >>>but after reading it's only 4.* tools supported >>>I not so sure. >>>I liked what I've read about Intel's SATA >>>raid that uses the iir driver, but again >>>I am worried about administrative tools. >>> >>>Thanks >>>-- >> >>Let me go through the list: >> >>Adaptec: >> - There are two families of controller here. The 2010/2015 >> ZCR cards are all that is left of the old family. It is >> supported under 4.x and 5.x, though there are issues with >> the management tools that require a few tricks to overcome >> in 5.x. I'm also not terribly happy with the driver, but >> I recently started cleaning it up. Adaptec provides no >> support nor updates for the driver. If you have a strong >> desire to use Adaptec ZCR, this is the only choice right now, >> but a lot of people use it and are happy with it. >> - The newer family of cards is a bit better in my opinion. >> Adaptec hasn't released a newer version of the management >> app for FreeBSD in several years, but the one that shipped >> with the 5400S will work for all cards in the family. >> Alternatively, the Linux CLI tool that Adaptec does ship >> will work under FreeBSD in linux emulation mode. The driver >> is well maintained. >> >>Intel: >> - The ICP/Vortex/Intel controllers are actually owned and >> produced by Adaptec now. The driver is fairly good and is >> actively maintained by the vendor. A management app is >> available for FreeBSD, but it will not work with FreeBSD 5.2.x >> due to an inadvertent IOCTL incompatibility. I have changes >> from the vendor pending right now that should hopefully fix >> this for 5.3. In the mean time, the patch that I committed to >> 5.2-CURRENT last month should work ok. >> >>AMI/LSI MegaRAID: >> - This hardware used to be well supported, but the vendor no >> longer provides regular updates. I don't know whether a >> management app exists or not, though I doubt that it does. >> >>3Ware: >> - Both the 6xxx/7xxx/8xxx and the 9xxx generation cards are >> actively supported on FreeBSD by the vendor and are used by a >> large, well-known web portal company. Not sure what the >> status of management apps are. >> >>Compaq CISS: >> - Driver is well supported by the FreeBSD community and is popular >> amoung users. >> >>IBM ServeRAID: >> - IBM provided an initial driver, and work has gone on over the >> past year to clean it up and make it more robust. It only exists >> for 5.x, but backporting it to 4.x would only take a few days. >> No management app exists, nor can the Linux apps run on FreeBSD. >> This hardware is owned and produced by Adaptec also. >> >>If I were to go the ZCR route right now, it would likely be with the >>Intel card. I've just started playing with them, and it has been a >>generally positive experience. The fact that they actively support >>FreeBSD is a big plus. For SATA, it would be a toss-up between 3ware >>and Adaptec. For U320 SCSI that you can buy in the channel (as opposed >>to only buying from the vendor), Adaptec probably wins. >> >>Scott > > > Hi, > > With respect to the support for the IBM ServeRAID cards, has there been a change > of status since then. I am looking at getting two IBM servers with ServeRAID-6M > cards to run 5.3-R. > > Also, are there any management apps available in 5.3 for the ServeRAID-6M card? > > thanks n rgds, > -kc. There really is no way to monitor or manage a serveraid card under FreeBSD. IBM/Adaptec seems to have no interest in releasing specs or porting their apps, and there is no way to make the linux apps work. Scott
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