Re: Hardware RAID Cards..
Aaron C. Meadows wrote: I have an IBM Netfinity 5000 server I just picked up, and it has an Adaptec AAA-131U2 (aic7815 chipset) RAID card in it, attached to 5 IBM Branded (Seagate ST39204LC) Hot Swap Ultra160 9.1gig SCSI Harddrives. My question is, since that chipset is unsupported for hardware RAID, would I be better off to software RAID them, or get a different RAID card? Contingent question is, if I should get another RAID card, what would be a good, supported, entry level card? This server will be purposed as a webserver for a small webhosting company, maybe 100 sites on it. Running Postfix,Bind,Apache2,PHP,Postgresql,etc I'm running a Netfinity 5000 with IBM ServeRAID 3L adapter. I won't say it's good (it lacks any kind of online RAID management or monitoring from within FreeBSD AFAICT), but it works and is definitely 'entry level'. This machine works as a webmail/IMAP server for ~150 users, listserver hosting ~50 mailing lists and as incoming mail scanner/gateway (postfix+amavisd+spamassassin+clamav) for another mail server with ca 500 users. Getting it to work with FreeBSD 5.2.1 was a pain, but 5.3 seems to run good. Doesn't boot with ACPI enabled, though. As to other suggestions made in this thread, they don't seem to be relevant for Netfinity 5000 since I can't think of a way to use ATA drives in this machine. --- ... When I read about the evils of drinking, I gave up reading. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Hardware RAID Cards..
On Tue, 24 May 2005, Kirk Strauser wrote: On Tuesday 24 May 2005 09:57, Aaron C. Meadows wrote: My question is, since that chipset is unsupported for hardware RAID, would I be better off to software RAID them, or get a different RAID card? What RAID level do you plan on using? Mirroring shouldn't use much CPU, for example, but parity might put a bit of a load on a hard-working system. That's a good question, though. Several cards are listed in the hardware compatibility notes, but they stop short of saying "this card is completely supported" or "stay away from this one". What cards have people had good luck with in practice? I've been using a Promise FastTrak S150 TX2/plus for close to a couple of years now. It supports two parallel and two serial ATA drives. I bought it to support my parallel ATA drives and then I thought I'd migrate to SATA, but I haven't done so yet. I've got two parallel drives in a RAID1 (mirrored) array. This configuration is discouraged by the manufacturer because the drives have to share a cable and failure on one drive will very likely lock up the system, but that's not really important to me. I'm more worried about hardware failure than uninterrupted uptime. I've been using this setup since FreeBSD version 5.2, and I'm currently running 5.4. The dmesg looks like: atapci0: port 0x9800-0x987f,0x9400-0x940f,0x9000-0x903f mem 0xfb00-0xfb01,0xfb027000-0xfb027fff i q 22 at device 2.0 on pci2 atapci0: failed: rid 0x20 is memory, requested 4 That little failure at the end has always been there in one form or another. It doesn't seem to hinder operation as far as I can tell though. I've only had to use the built-in maintenance utilities once to fix something, and that was after a really bad kernel upgrading accident. It worked fine. Overall I'm happy with this card. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Hardware RAID Cards..
Just be careful on what card you choose. Aside from simply making sure there are drivers for it, you also have to check on the little things. Like, oh, being able to non-destructively grow the size of the RAID5 array. I bought a Promise SX6000. I have 3 200GB drives that will be in RAID5. If I wish to add a 4th, it can't add it to the array. I have to destory the array and start over. Like I said, the little things. :\ Also, remember that growfs is your friend. Tony On Thu, 26 May 2005, Aaron C. Meadows wrote: Kirk Strauser wrote: On Tuesday 24 May 2005 14:48, Aaron C. Meadows wrote: I'm planning on using RAID 5, since they are kind of small drives, and I'm more interested in reliability and size, than speed. Hmmm - I'd probably look toward a hardware system, then. I've had great luck with software mirroring and striping, but those really don't put a lot of demand on the CPU. If you're also doing database, mail, and PHP on the same system then you'd probably want a bit of external acceleration. Don't everyone jump on this thread all at once.. I won't be able to read it fast enough... =) --aaron ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" Output from gpg gpg: Signature made Thu May 26 01:08:23 2005 CDT using DSA key ID DF052C55 gpg: Can't check signature: public key not found ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Hardware RAID Cards..
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Kirk Strauser wrote: >On Tuesday 24 May 2005 14:48, Aaron C. Meadows wrote: > >>I'm planning on using RAID 5, since they are kind of small drives, and >>I'm more interested in reliability and size, than speed. > > >Hmmm - I'd probably look toward a hardware system, then. I've had great >luck with software mirroring and striping, but those really don't put a lot >of demand on the CPU. If you're also doing database, mail, and PHP on the >same system then you'd probably want a bit of external acceleration. Don't everyone jump on this thread all at once.. I won't be able to read it fast enough... =) - --aaron -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFClWfX/mrzqN8FLFURAtZpAJ9aSVC781eySrqmP6BM6qG5NluMwgCeOWGO 2hTLMuw1Tx3WGFA6DiS9qt4= =e6Xk -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Hardware RAID Cards..
On Tuesday 24 May 2005 14:48, Aaron C. Meadows wrote: > I'm planning on using RAID 5, since they are kind of small drives, and > I'm more interested in reliability and size, than speed. Hmmm - I'd probably look toward a hardware system, then. I've had great luck with software mirroring and striping, but those really don't put a lot of demand on the CPU. If you're also doing database, mail, and PHP on the same system then you'd probably want a bit of external acceleration. -- Kirk Strauser pgpoFlqYEoimr.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Hardware RAID Cards..
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 I'm planning on using RAID 5, since they are kind of small drives, and I'm more interested in reliability and size, than speed. Kirk Strauser wrote: >On Tuesday 24 May 2005 09:57, Aaron C. Meadows wrote: > >>My question is, since that chipset is unsupported for hardware RAID, >>would I be better off to software RAID them, or get a different RAID >>card? > > >What RAID level do you plan on using? Mirroring shouldn't use much CPU, for >example, but parity might put a bit of a load on a hard-working system. > >That's a good question, though. Several cards are listed in the hardware >compatibility notes, but they stop short of saying "this card is completely >supported" or "stay away from this one". What cards have people had good >luck with in practice? -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD8DBQFCk4UX/mrzqN8FLFURAihgAJwPKj/t2osnnkSCWVr/xBFv9fPM5QCfb0zo 5LDwsu+PlD074x37ZGcXohw= =KLh1 -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Hardware RAID Cards..
On Tuesday 24 May 2005 09:57, Aaron C. Meadows wrote: > My question is, since that chipset is unsupported for hardware RAID, > would I be better off to software RAID them, or get a different RAID > card? What RAID level do you plan on using? Mirroring shouldn't use much CPU, for example, but parity might put a bit of a load on a hard-working system. That's a good question, though. Several cards are listed in the hardware compatibility notes, but they stop short of saying "this card is completely supported" or "stay away from this one". What cards have people had good luck with in practice? -- Kirk Strauser pgpNbFlUGGFoS.pgp Description: PGP signature
Hardware RAID Cards..
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 Hi there. I have an IBM Netfinity 5000 server I just picked up, and it has an Adaptec AAA-131U2 (aic7815 chipset) RAID card in it, attached to 5 IBM Branded (Seagate ST39204LC) Hot Swap Ultra160 9.1gig SCSI Harddrives. My question is, since that chipset is unsupported for hardware RAID, would I be better off to software RAID them, or get a different RAID card? Contingent question is, if I should get another RAID card, what would be a good, supported, entry level card? This server will be purposed as a webserver for a small webhosting company, maybe 100 sites on it. Running Postfix,Bind,Apache2,PHP,Postgresql,etc Thanks for the help! - --Aaron -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v1.4.1 (MingW32) Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://enigmail.mozdev.org iD4DBQFCk0Ds/mrzqN8FLFURAp15AJUYy2qw69BsB1OrCDk0lLNEjom4AJ4maVRq WzD8N71349KhBLPYy5zrfg== =cxo+ -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
