Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2010 19:30:31 -0500 From: Josh Paetzel <jpaetzel@freebsd.org> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Cc: Andy Wodfer <wodfer@gmail.com> Subject: Re: Hardware RAID controller questions - 3Ware vs RocketRaid Message-ID: <201003181930.37822.jpaetzel@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <23ed14b81003180137n61261b5axa22677a0a7bbe544@mail.gmail.com> References: <23ed14b81003180137n61261b5axa22677a0a7bbe544@mail.gmail.com>
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--nextPart2868302.41bsL4qo4R Content-Type: Text/Plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On Thursday 18 March 2010 03:37:32 Andy Wodfer wrote: > Hi, > We're setting up two backup servers where each server will have about 4TB > of harddrives (for now) connected (4x1TB and 8x500GB drives). Last night > we ran into trouble with the 3ware controllers we have (9650SE-8LPML) > because we couldn't create a larger RAID5 than 1.99TB. >=20 > We are going to use FreeBSD 8.0 and Bacula, but first we obviously need to > create a working RAID. >=20 > My questions are: >=20 > - Are HighPoint RocketRaid controllers a good alternative to 3ware > controllers? Are RocketRaid controllers true hardware RAID? >=20 > - What should we look for in a RAID controller spec to see that it has > support for larger than 2TB RAIDs? >=20 > I've been looking at these: > http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr2300.htm > http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA_new/series_rr3500.htm >=20 > Any FreeBSD recommendations? Or perhaps for another 3ware controller? >=20 > We're using SATAII drives. >=20 > Thanks for your help! >=20 > Best regards, > Andreas You are hitting an issue with DOS MBR limitations, not the RAID controller= =20 itself. Either use GPT or put a filesystem on the raw device with no fdisk= at=20 all. The latter strategy is the better one if you intend to ever grow the= =20 filesystem. 3ware controllers are the best game in town for FreeBSD. We use them=20 extensively both internally and for our customers at iXsystems. You can fl= ash=20 the controller firmware from in the OS on FreeBSD using tw_cli. You might also consider running ZFS on the hardware RAID instead of UFS. Y= ou=20 get the advantages of running a hardware RAID controller, plus the advantag= es=20 of ZFS (namely no fsck) root@servant /usr/src ->tw_cli /c0 show Unit UnitType Status %RCmpl %V/I/M Stripe Size(GB) Cache AVr= fy =2D------------------------------------------------------------------------= =2D---- u0 RAID-6 OK - - 256K 5587.88 RiW ON = =20 root@servant /usr/src ->grep 'da0' /var/run/dmesg.boot da0 at twa0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0 da0: <AMCC 9690SA-4I4 DISK 4.08> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-5 device=20 da0: 100.000MB/s transfers da0: 122879MB (251658239 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 15665C) ** small boot LUN root@servant /usr/src ->grep 'da1' /var/run/dmesg.boot da1 at twa0 bus 0 target 0 lun 1 da1: <AMCC 9690SA-4I4 DISK 4.08> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-5 device=20 da1: 100.000MB/s transfers da1: 5599104MB (11466964993 512 byte sectors: 255H 63S/T 713785C) ** The rest of it root@servant /usr/src ->zpool status -v pool: a state: ONLINE scrub: none requested config: NAME STATE READ WRITE CKSUM a ONLINE 0 0 0 da1 ONLINE 0 0 0 errors: No known data errors root@servant /usr/src ->df -h a =46ilesystem Size Used Avail Capacity Mounted on a 5.2T 2.2T 3.0T 42% /a =2D-=20 Thanks, Josh Paetzel =46reeBSD -- The power to serve --nextPart2868302.41bsL4qo4R Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name=signature.asc Content-Description: This is a digitally signed message part. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (FreeBSD) iQEcBAABAgAGBQJLosWtAAoJEKFq1/n1feG2bugH/3dVaVniypJYw3lSu/FMAKd6 fkucZq7CM1N5wcQVxT0DtQcLVnu5mgG9lw2uBiVWYnIrrSmdtdaFYfj+mqRx5qJP znVntWqN6I0C9QOLLEmMSL3QiCjNDD7nUnjbCV5SASSV1eIRgkkC4lDnS1lW2TPm FpCW6+4oid0X0KxYa6hoaI7Ze2Se7WVVXsHFFNNPmHOel6F/6Ykt17pWjtODQYCg ieYrV2ng3xjAAceSKolWovhQnvdxb+PFoDUWrUlrA2oGUGGsJnyFEtyrlGdaXUEk 0naJwwr1fIDFRoGDfXfmCKvsSDaw5THgb2h+7bUKTd/f2Lv4EyS29mZAeC5Or0I= =9Ron -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --nextPart2868302.41bsL4qo4R--
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