Date: Wed, 31 Aug 2005 11:51:02 -0300 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Tulio_Guimar=E3es_da_Silva?= <tuliogs@pgt.mpt.gov.br> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Re: building an older server Message-ID: <4315C3D6.4070509@pgt.mpt.gov.br> In-Reply-To: <20050830004236.GA86426@neptune.atopia.net> References: <000101c5ac82$66f25290$b47ba8c0@maximus> <20050829171305.GA70155@neptune.atopia.net> <001e01c5ace5$f62c16e0$b47ba8c0@maximus> <20050830004236.GA86426@neptune.atopia.net>
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This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------090709040305060809080500 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Was missing this one... Dan Ponte wrote: >>>You might want to check HARDWARE.txt if it's supported. An apropos(1) >>>here for "HighPoint" only yields results for hptmv(4), which supports >>>the RocketRAID 128x. You will most likely want to recompile it into your >>>kernel if such support exists; you should do so anyway, to reduce the >>>bloat and get rid of unnecessary drivers in your kernel. By the way, my >>>machine uses an Abit BH6 (single CPU, pIII/500). >>> >>> >>I'll check for support. I don't have access to a FreeBSD box at this >>moment, so I'm planning all theoretically. Once I'm close the FreeBSD box >>again I'll check, but that will also be the moment I have to quickly decide >>what to use :) and I try not to wait until then to get an idea of >>everything ;) >>I will recompile the kernel anyway, but the question is if I can install on >>disks on that controller from the beginning, or do I have to do it first on >>a normal controller and only after recompiling will I see my disks on the >>HighPoint? >>btw, this is same genration of motherboard: any stability issues? they are >>supposed to be rock solid, right?... >> >> > >I'm not sure. I've personally never used RAID under FreeBSD. I would >guess that it might support i already via a module, but I'm not sure. >The board I have is rock-solid. It's been in service here (it replaced >an Abit BX6 with a p2/300) for almost a year, never skipped a beat. Some >have told me that some revisions of the board had problems, but mine >seems to be the same that they mention, and I've had none. Both boards >were superb. Abit seems to be a very good manufacturer (or they were, I >can't comment on any of their newer boards, which I'd imagine may be >worse). > Highpoint usually provides FreeBSD drivers; I don´t know for now, but until some time ago, for all boards they had in their site, there was a corresponding FBSD driver up to at least 5.1. That was the final word in HPT´s favor over Promise, when we were looking for RAID cards. I don´t know if HPT366´s drivers work on recent releases but, if so, and if hptmv(4) doesn´t already support it, all you´ll have to do is to copy Highpoint´s drivers to a floppy and load´em at boot prompt, then it should go without much ado. BTW, I had forgotten it, but I´ve had very nice experiences with FBSD up to 5.2.1 on hardware as old as Pentium MMX on a PC-Chips M5xx o_O (THAT impressed me) or dual-Pentium 200MHz (P54C) on a server MB with Intel chipset, so you shouldn´t have big issues; for SMP, I would just suggest to remove "cpu I386" and "I486", since you won´t need them. As for soft RAID, I guess you´ll need to test it and see if your hardware won´t complain... we used Linux soft IDE-RAID 0 on that dual-P200 here and performance was not short of irritating. Though your hardware is better, according to a recent thread on -perf md(4) was significantly slower than Linux´s equivalent (don´t rebember what is it). I hope that´ll help you. ;) Have luck, Tulio G. da Silva --------------090709040305060809080500--
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