From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Feb 18 10:11:09 2007 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [69.147.83.52]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E6A7B16A406 for ; Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:11:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (ns0.infracaninophile.co.uk [81.187.76.162]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 48A5913C474 for ; Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:11:09 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from [IPv6:::1] (localhost.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1]) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.13.8/8.13.8) with ESMTP id l1IAAmwl020340; Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:10:49 GMT (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Message-ID: <45D82622.2080505@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:10:42 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman Organization: Infracaninophile User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.9 (X11/20070120) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Garrett Cooper References: <45D77216.40308@u.washington.edu> <45D77DFA.9090504@infracaninophile.co.uk> <45D7EEA9.3090205@u.washington.edu> In-Reply-To: <45D7EEA9.3090205@u.washington.edu> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.0.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha256; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig2CF1DA5A0E9961FB898F03A4" X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-3.0 (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1]); Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:11:04 +0000 (GMT) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.7/2591/Sat Feb 17 19:29:32 2007 on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-1.9 required=5.0 tests=AWL,BAYES_00, DKIM_POLICY_TESTING,NO_RELAYS autolearn=ham version=3.1.8 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.8 (2007-02-13) on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk Cc: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: gvinum with RAID capable SATA card 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: Sun, 18 Feb 2007 10:11:10 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig2CF1DA5A0E9961FB898F03A4 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Garrett Cooper wrote: > Matthew Seaman wrote: =20 >> However, if you've got a hardware RAID card, then you'll almost >> certainly be better off using it for doing RAID5 than doing it in >> software with gvinum. The RAID card will have hardware to do the >> parity calculations needed for RAID5 and offloading that from the >> CPU is a big win. =20 > Well, it may be in a sense, but I'm afraid of controller reliability an= d > the whole proprietary nature of RAID cards.. I don't want a controller > maker to be bought up by another group a few years from now and I won't= > be able to use my drives because they don't exist :(.. That's not a reason not to use hardware RAID. That's a reason to have comprehensive backups. RAID is not an alternative to good backups -- it just means that with luck you will not need to restore from the backup as frequently. Besides most of the amalgamation in the RAID manufacturer market has already happened: even if some of the remaining manufacturers did merge, it would be commercial suicide for them to immediately drop support for one of the former companies' model lines. That's why eg. the driver for LSI MegaRaid cards is amr(4) -- because LSI bought American Megatrends several years ago. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enig2CF1DA5A0E9961FB898F03A4 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.2 (FreeBSD) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFF2CYo8Mjk52CukIwRCGMkAJoDnvRr7Zi9Ku1xrqXNx3yrUgl77QCZAdzM p4VIU9+wuTiyh84IbyYX4+w= =J8AB -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig2CF1DA5A0E9961FB898F03A4--