From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 19 10:25:32 2010 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E9001065679 for ; Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:25:32 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) Received: from smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (smtp6.infracaninophile.co.uk [IPv6:2001:8b0:151:1:3fd3:cd67:fafa:3d78]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 04D228FC15 for ; Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:25:31 +0000 (UTC) Received: from russet.local (reflex.squiz.co.uk [83.217.109.164]) (authenticated bits=0) by smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk (8.14.4/8.14.4) with ESMTP id oAJAPMv5051707 (version=TLSv1/SSLv3 cipher=DHE-RSA-CAMELLIA256-SHA bits=256 verify=NO) for ; Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:25:27 GMT (envelope-from m.seaman@infracaninophile.co.uk) X-DKIM: Sendmail DKIM Filter v2.8.3 smtp.infracaninophile.co.uk oAJAPMv5051707 DKIM-Signature: v=1; a=rsa-sha256; c=relaxed/relaxed; d=infracaninophile.co.uk; s=201001-infracaninophile; t=1290162328; bh=vyq/f4TfxoioMltSjNn8Gxsv9eyR0rzjiubDdJtheEg=; h=Message-ID:Date:From:MIME-Version:To:Subject:References: In-Reply-To:Content-Type:Cc:Content-Type:Date:From:In-Reply-To: Message-ID:Mime-Version:References:To; z=Message-ID:=20<4CE6508C.1030508@infracaninophile.co.uk>|Date:=20F ri,=2019=20Nov=202010=2010:25:16=20+0000|From:=20Matthew=20Seaman= 20|User-Agent:=20Mozilla/5.0=20(M acintosh=3B=20U=3B=20Intel=20Mac=20OS=20X=2010.6=3B=20en-US=3B=20r v:1.9.2.12)=20Gecko/20101027=20Thunderbird/3.1.6|MIME-Version:=201 .0|To:=20freebsd-questions@freebsd.org|Subject:=20Re:=20FreeBSD=20 and=20large=20harddrives|References:=20=09<4CE52F49.4010602@sentex .net>=09<218D523D-A5BF-4E37-BC75-2FBF67C1D618@mac.com>=09=09<15996e2 cfb833e0ed3fa9d19725b3a95.squirrel@pop.pknet.net>=09=20|In-Reply-To:=2 0| X-Enigmail-Version:=201.1.1|Content-Type:=20multipart/signed=3B=20 micalg=3Dpgp-sha1=3B=0D=0A=20protocol=3D"application/pgp-signature "=3B=0D=0A=20boundary=3D"------------enig13E7C46B6C04828089811B77" ; b=aCftkz1moFP4f5cGOLMXhXamYlh8s2GMpq2GearBLKQmoKK/oKAu+is99laOvu5+m 3GDv4zm6N/F4/osrfU8dfByXi3AjPafoQbCl7qo+R7KnIEaWacft7Z8Hs6W5V7iCzv mDYYQ2PXXHD5uRezak+t63KNooPltUg1itOjS9gA= X-Authentication-Warning: lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk: Host reflex.squiz.co.uk [83.217.109.164] claimed to be russet.local Message-ID: <4CE6508C.1030508@infracaninophile.co.uk> Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:25:16 +0000 From: Matthew Seaman User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Macintosh; U; Intel Mac OS X 10.6; en-US; rv:1.9.2.12) Gecko/20101027 Thunderbird/3.1.6 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org References: <4CE52F49.4010602@sentex.net> <218D523D-A5BF-4E37-BC75-2FBF67C1D618@mac.com> <15996e2cfb833e0ed3fa9d19725b3a95.squirrel@pop.pknet.net> In-Reply-To: X-Enigmail-Version: 1.1.1 Content-Type: multipart/signed; micalg=pgp-sha1; protocol="application/pgp-signature"; boundary="------------enig13E7C46B6C04828089811B77" X-Virus-Scanned: clamav-milter 0.96.4 at lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk X-Virus-Status: Clean X-Spam-Status: No, score=-0.6 required=5.0 tests=BAYES_05,DKIM_SIGNED, DKIM_VALID,DKIM_VALID_AU,SPF_FAIL autolearn=no version=3.3.1 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 3.3.1 (2010-03-16) on lucid-nonsense.infracaninophile.co.uk Subject: Re: FreeBSD and large harddrives 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: Fri, 19 Nov 2010 10:25:32 -0000 This is an OpenPGP/MIME signed message (RFC 2440 and 3156) --------------enig13E7C46B6C04828089811B77 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable On 19/11/2010 10:00, krad wrote: > If you already have a 3ware card and you are familiar with them, why no= t let > it do the raid and just plonk zfs on top of the lun presented to the sy= stem? > Will make booting off pure zfs much easier. There's a lot of duplication of function there -- both ZFS and the RAID card will be doing background tasks to try and ensure the integrity of the data, which means more disk IO than is really necessary. A good RAID card should give you almost all of what ZFS gives you, and if you spec it with BBU really should outperform ZFS over the same number of drives. Also RAID cards tend to have plenty of battery-backed cache, which also aids performance. Of course, all this comes at a fairly hefty price tag. ZFS wins by using some of the excess CPU power -- and modern CPUs tend to have cores and cycles to spare -- and the main system RAM, all of which you'ld have to have anyhow, to let you connect a bunch of drives to a system using relatively cheap SAS / SATA cards and get much the same functionality as an expensive dedicated RAID card. Not to mention you can do all the ZFS adminning from the OS; no need to boot into the BIOS or flail about trying to find a compatible management program. I've put ZFS on top of h/w RAID before now, but I configured the h/w RAID as a JBOD, and let ZFS do all the work. Cheers, Matthew --=20 Dr Matthew J Seaman MA, D.Phil. 7 Priory Courtyard Flat 3 PGP: http://www.infracaninophile.co.uk/pgpkey Ramsgate JID: matthew@infracaninophile.co.uk Kent, CT11 9PW --------------enig13E7C46B6C04828089811B77 Content-Type: application/pgp-signature; name="signature.asc" Content-Description: OpenPGP digital signature Content-Disposition: attachment; filename="signature.asc" -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG/MacGPG2 v2.0.14 (Darwin) Comment: Using GnuPG with Mozilla - http://enigmail.mozdev.org/ iEYEARECAAYFAkzmUJIACgkQ8Mjk52CukIy8fQCeOsA4lnmH8SHOvdHvwilAuxWh aboAniI/rFG15cGkcSmMs5E+ngDYKUgY =bKpV -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- --------------enig13E7C46B6C04828089811B77--