Date: Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:10:12 -0500 From: Boris Kochergin <spawk@acm.poly.edu> To: Dan Langille <dan@langille.org> Cc: FreeBSD Stable <freebsd-stable@freebsd.org> Subject: Re: hardware for home use large storage Message-ID: <4B730494.6080001@acm.poly.edu> In-Reply-To: <4B72FF12.5020309@langille.org> References: <4B6F9A8D.4050907@langille.org> <alpine.OSX.2.00.1002090103520.982@hotlap.local> <4B71490B.6030602@langille.org> <20100209161817.GI4648@cesium.hyperfine.info> <4B718EBB.6080709@acm.poly.edu> <4B723609.8010802@langille.org> <4B72FC5A.5030100@acm.poly.edu> <4B72FF12.5020309@langille.org>
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Dan Langille wrote: > Boris Kochergin wrote: >> Dan Langille wrote: >>> Boris Kochergin wrote: >>>> Peter C. Lai wrote: >>>>> On 2010-02-09 06:37:47AM -0500, Dan Langille wrote: >>>>> >>>>>> Charles Sprickman wrote: >>>>>> >>>>>>> On Mon, 8 Feb 2010, Dan Langille wrote: >>>>>>> Also, it seems like >>>>>>> people who use zfs (or gmirror + gstripe) generally end up >>>>>>> buying pricey hardware raid cards for compatibility reasons. >>>>>>> There seem to be no decent add-on SATA cards that play nice with >>>>>>> FreeBSD other than that weird supermicro card that has to be >>>>>>> physically hacked about to fit. >>>>>>> >>>>> >>>>> Mostly only because certain cards have issues w/shoddy JBOD >>>>> implementation. Some cards (most notably ones like Adaptec 2610A >>>>> which was rebranded by Dell as the "CERC SATA 1.5/6ch" back in the >>>>> day) won't let you run the drives in passthrough mode and seem to >>>>> all want to stick their grubby little RAID paws into your JBOD >>>>> setup (i.e. the only way to have minimal >>>>> participation from the "hardware" RAID is to set each disk as its >>>>> own RAID-0/volume in the controller BIOS) which then cascades into >>>>> issues with SMART, AHCI, "triple caching"/write reordering, etc on >>>>> the FreeBSD side (the controller's own craptastic cache, ZFS vdev >>>>> cache, vmm/app cache, oh my!). So *some* people go with something >>>>> tried-and-true (basically bordering on server-level cards that let >>>>> you ditch any BIOS type of RAID config and present the raw disk >>>>> devices to the kernel) >>>> As someone else has mentioned, recent SiL stuff works well. I have >>>> multiple >>>> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816132008 >>>> cards servicing RAID-Z2 and GEOM_RAID3 arrays on 8.0-RELEASE and >>>> 8.0-STABLE machines using both the old ata(4) driver and ATA_CAM. >>>> Don't let the RAID label scare you--that stuff is off by default >>>> and the controller just presents the disks to the operating system. >>>> Hot swap works. I haven't had the time to try the siis(4) driver >>>> for them, which would result in better performance. >>> >>> That's a really good price. :) >>> >>> If needed, I could host all eight SATA drives for $160, much cheaper >>> than any of the other RAID cards I've seen. >>> >>> The issue then is finding a motherboard which has 4x PCI Express >>> slots. ;) >> If you want to go this route, I bought one a while ago so that I >> could stuff as many dual-port Gigabit Ethernet controllers into it as >> possible (it was a SPAN port replicator): >> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813130136. >> Newegg doesn't carry it anymore, but if you can find it elsewhere, I >> can vouch for its stability: >> >> # uptime >> 1:20PM up 494 days, 5:23, 1 user, load averages: 0.05, 0.07, 0.05 >> >> In my setups with those Silicon Image cards, though, they serve as >> additional controllers, with the following onboard SATA controllers >> being used to provide most of the ports: > > I don't know what the above means. > > I think it means you are primarily using the onboard SATA contollers > and have those Silicon Image cards providing additional ports where > required. Correct. > >> >> SB600 (AMD/ATI) >> SB700 (AMD/ATI) >> ICH9 (Intel) >> 63XXESB2 (Intel) > > These are the chipsets on that motherboard? Those are the SATA controller chipsets. Here are the corresponding chipsets advertised on the motherboards, in north bridge/south bridge form: SB600 SATA: AMD 770/AMD SB600 SB700 SATA: AMD SR5690/AMD SP5100 ICH9 SATA: Intel 3200/Intel ICH9 63XXESB2 SATA: Intel 5000X/Intel ESB2 -Boris > >> >> I haven't had any problems with any of them. >> >> -Boris >
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