Date: Thu, 26 Apr 2001 21:20:25 -0700 From: "Charles Burns" <burnscharlesn@hotmail.com> To: maillist@coastsight.com, freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Promise IDE RAID Support Message-ID: <F176aLI9mK6PYzDabig0000c153@hotmail.com>
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>Does anybody know if and when, if ever, the Promise IDE RAID will ever >work properly in FreeBSD? Well, in a way it does now. With the exception of Promise's new RAID 5 controllers (which suck, BTW), Promise RAID controllers like the FastTrak are all just software RAID. You can use VINUM, a FreeBSD software RAID tool, to accomplish the exact same thing without the need for special controllers (normal Promise ones work fine). If you absolutely must use those controllers though, you can probably flash them with the FlashROM from the normal Promise IDE controllers and use them with Vinum. Note that Promise's RAID, being software, has no speed advantage over FreeBSD's software RAID... In fact I am willing to bet that it is measurable slower knowing the quality of code in FreeBSD. Promises "hardware RAID" solution, at least in RAID 5 (IMO the most useful RAID level) is usually slower than a single hard disk, thus the only advantages are fault tolerance and a bigger partition. There is another company that makes IDE RAID5 controllers that do the RAID processing in hardware (thus freeing up the CPU from doing the same) that not only don't suck--they also support Linux. I am unsure if they work in FreeBSD though. Hope this helps. Charles Burns _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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