From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Sat Jul 15 06:30:16 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B352416A4DD for ; Sat, 15 Jul 2006 06:30:16 +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 E974543D45 for ; Sat, 15 Jul 2006 06:30:15 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from [IPv6:::1] (localhost [IPv6:::1]) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.13.6/8.13.6) with ESMTP id k6F6TiiP062573; Sat, 15 Jul 2006 07:29:47 +0100 (BST) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Authentication-Results: smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk from=m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk; sender-id=softfail; spf=softfail X-SenderID: Sendmail Sender-ID Filter v0.2.13 smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk k6F6TiiP062573 Message-ID: <44B88B51.10607@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 07:29:37 +0100 From: Matthew Seaman Organization: Infracaninophile User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.4 (X11/20060610) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Javier Henderson References: <20060714165735.L15214@bunning.skiltech.com> <44B8094C.3040007@rogers.com> <20060715011112.GB32358@skyhawk.kjsl.com> In-Reply-To: <20060715011112.GB32358@skyhawk.kjsl.com> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.0.0 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-ripemd160; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig618647749D12E3E0995E3F0C" X-Greylist: Sender IP whitelisted, not delayed by milter-greylist-2.0.2 (smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:::1]); Sat, 15 Jul 2006 07:30:08 +0100 (BST) X-Virus-Scanned: ClamAV 0.88.3/1599/Fri Jul 14 06:35:31 2006 on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-2.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_00,NO_RELAYS autolearn=ham version=3.1.3 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.1.3 (2006-06-01) on happy-idiot-talk.infracaninophile.co.uk Cc: Mike Jakubik , freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Intel ICH7R RAID controller working on 6.1/STABLE? X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 15 Jul 2006 06:30:16 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig618647749D12E3E0995E3F0C Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-15 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Javier Henderson wrote: > * Mike Jakubik [060714 17:15]: >> The chipset is supported, but i wouldn't recommend onboard raid for an= y=20 >> production server. Get a real raid controller, or use gmirror if you=20 >> plan to mirror. I use several of these board sin production with gmirr= or. =20 > Why do you recommend against on-board RAID controllers? Think about what happens if one of your disks dies. Sure, the machine wi= ll carry on running. With an on-board controller there are two problems: i) How do you get notified that a disk has died ii) How do you replace the drive (i) you'ld likely only find out about at reboot time, or by noticing a change in the pattern of blinken-lights on the machine. (Don't laugh -- it happens) (ii) is not just about having to power off the machine and swap out the hardware: it's not uncommon for on-board RAID-1 setups to be unable to rebuild a mirror by duplicating the good disk onto the replacement one. = That means blowing everything away and recovering from backup. By which time you've had so much downtime that you might as well not have bothered with= RAID in the first place. The advantage of a good RAID controller -- like one of the 3ware cards -- or of gmirror is that combined with hot-swap disk (and pretty much all= SATA drives nowadays have hot-swap capability; you just need to find a chassis with the right sort of drive bays) then you can take out the dead= disk, replace it with a good one and rebuild the array *without taking th= e machine down*. gmirror will alert you to failures in the nightly e-mail if you enable the 406.status-gmirror periodic script. Similarly a good hardware RAID controller will have a system level control application to let you interf= ace with the card from the OS level, and it will have some mechanism for aler= ting the admin to problems. 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 --------------enig618647749D12E3E0995E3F0C Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.4.4 (FreeBSD) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFEuItY8Mjk52CukIwRA0RbAJ9h8Q5lUZAbkMjJvgf/aiiOu6yHyQCfQMBc zbNyKc3sxol8+t6HHXIlFJU= =kHva -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig618647749D12E3E0995E3F0C--