Re: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards

[Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC]

On Feb 4, 2006, at 12:56 AM, Mike Loiterman wrote:



If there aren't any such cards or motherboards, are there  
relatively easy

work-arounds using less expensive cards?



I have the LSI MegaRaid SATA-4 150 (or some such name) in a FBSD box  
and another in a Solaris 10 box (which I hacked to make it work since  
the amr driver would support it on Solaris but the various config  
files Solaris uses to recognize cards wouldn't recognize it).


Real HW raid.  I am not using Raid 5 though.  It does support it I  
just have no experience with it.  Monarch  Computer  
(monarchcomputer.com) recently sold me 1 for about $230 .


Sounds like it fits the bill.

Chad


---
Chad Leigh -- Shire.Net LLC
Your Web App and Email hosting provider
chad at shire.net



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RE: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards

[Gayn Winters]

> From: Mike Loiterman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
> Sent: Saturday, February 04, 2006 9:54 AM
> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: RE: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards
> 
> 
> Gayn Winters <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike
> >> Loiterman Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 11:57 PM
> >> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> >> Subject: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards
> >> 
> >> 
> >> I'm looking to setup a 4 drive SATA RAID 5 file server for 
> >> mp3, avi, and other media using 6.0-RELEASE.
> >> 
> >> It appears that the supported SATA RAID cards listed in
> >> /stand/help/HARDWARE.TXT are all over $400.00.  That's hard for to
> >> justify for this application, unless there are no other choices.
> >> 
> >> I'd like to keep this simple, so if the price for that is $450
> >> bucks, well, I guess I'll have to deal with that.  But, I 
> figured it
> >> wouldn't hurt to ask if are there any well supported SATA 
> RAID cards
> >> (meaning setup automatically recognizes an array setup in the RAID
> >> card's BIOS as one drive) in the $100 to $200 range.  I don't need
> >> anything other than 5, but other levels would be nice for future
> >> use.  Even better would be a motherboard with onboard RAID that
> >> FreeBSD supported natively. 
> >> 
> >> If there aren't any such cards or motherboards, are there 
> relatively
> >> easy work-arounds using less expensive cards?
> > 
> > Have you considered software RAID5?
> > 
> > -gayn

> I have, and I use it for a RAID 1 server I'm running now.
> 
> For this application I think hardware makes it more sense.  
> My gut feel is
> that it will probably be faster, for RAID 5, to do it in 
> hardware.  Am I wrong? 

This is a frequent topic here.  Time to Google!  The bottom line advice
is always the following:  match your system to what you will use it for.

Given you are willing to buy a motherboard, you've got the maximum
number of "knobs" to adjust.  You also seem to have a cost constraint,
which usually favors putting money into the base system (processor,
memory, on-board components) rather than into a RAID card.  For example,
I've seen arguments for and against say $400 into a RAID card AND $400
into a base system.  Keeping in mind that few applications are processor
limited, based on the little data you have provided on what all you are
going to use the system for other than for storing mp3, avi, and other
media, I'd lean toward software RAID and putting whatever extra money
you have into the base system.  You'll also need to play around with
things like 4 sata ports on the mboard (easy to find now) being used as
4 striped with no redundancy, 2+2 mirrored, 1 for the system and 3 in a
software RAID5, 4 in a software RAID5, and a cheap IDE drive for the
system, etc., etc.  You also have tunefs, etc.  Also, someone might know
of RAID5 on the mboard.  My recent boards only have RAID 0, 1, and 10.

Keep us posted on your analysis!

-gayn

Bristol Systems Inc.
714/532-6776
www.bristolsystems.com 


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RE: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards

[Mike Loiterman]

Gayn Winters  wrote:
>> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Mike
>> Loiterman Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 11:57 PM
>> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
>> Subject: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards
>> 
>> 
>> I'm looking to setup a 4 drive SATA RAID 5 file server for mp3, avi,
>> and other media using 6.0-RELEASE.
>> 
>> It appears that the supported SATA RAID cards listed in
>> /stand/help/HARDWARE.TXT are all over $400.00.  That's hard for to
>> justify for this application, unless there are no other choices.
>> 
>> I'd like to keep this simple, so if the price for that is $450
>> bucks, well, I guess I'll have to deal with that.  But, I figured it
>> wouldn't hurt to ask if are there any well supported SATA RAID cards
>> (meaning setup automatically recognizes an array setup in the RAID
>> card's BIOS as one drive) in the $100 to $200 range.  I don't need
>> anything other than 5, but other levels would be nice for future
>> use.  Even better would be a motherboard with onboard RAID that
>> FreeBSD supported natively. 
>> 
>> If there aren't any such cards or motherboards, are there relatively
>> easy work-arounds using less expensive cards?
> 
> Have you considered software RAID5?
> 
> -gayn
> 
> Bristol Systems Inc.
> 714/532-6776
> www.bristolsystems.com

I have, and I use it for a RAID 1 server I'm running now.

For this application I think hardware makes it more sense.  My gut feel is
that it will probably be faster, for RAID 5, to do it in hardware.  Am I
wrong? 

--
Mike Loiterman
grantADLER
Tel: 630-302-4944
Fax: 773-442-0992
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
PGP Key: 0xD1B9D18E

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RE: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards

[Gayn Winters]

> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of 
> Mike Loiterman
> Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 11:57 PM
> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
> Subject: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards
> 
> 
> I'm looking to setup a 4 drive SATA RAID 5 file server for 
> mp3, avi, and
> other media using 6.0-RELEASE.
> 
> It appears that the supported SATA RAID cards listed in
> /stand/help/HARDWARE.TXT are all over $400.00.  That's hard 
> for to justify
> for this application, unless there are no other choices.  
> 
> I'd like to keep this simple, so if the price for that is 
> $450 bucks, well,
> I guess I'll have to deal with that.  But, I figured it 
> wouldn't hurt to ask
> if are there any well supported SATA RAID cards (meaning 
> setup automatically
> recognizes an array setup in the RAID card's BIOS as one 
> drive) in the $100
> to $200 range.  I don't need anything other than 5, but other 
> levels would
> be nice for future use.  Even better would be a motherboard 
> with onboard
> RAID that FreeBSD supported natively.
> 
> If there aren't any such cards or motherboards, are there 
> relatively easy
> work-arounds using less expensive cards?

Have you considered software RAID5?

-gayn

Bristol Systems Inc.
714/532-6776
www.bristolsystems.com 


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RE: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards

[Ted Mittelstaedt]

udma raid cards like the highpoint series are very cheap on ebay because
so many people think sata is better that they are dumping them.  At the
same
time the drive manufacturers are dumping udma drives because they are
thinking the same thing.

TLast month for example I just put 2 mirrored 160GB seagates on a
highpoint.  The seagates were rebated down to about $35 each, and the
highpoint was off ebay for about $15.  If it's cheap disk storage your
looking
for, you can't really beat that.

Ted

>-Original Message-
>From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>[mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Mike Loiterman
>Sent: Friday, February 03, 2006 11:57 PM
>To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org
>Subject: Natively supported inexpensive RAID cards
>
>
>I'm looking to setup a 4 drive SATA RAID 5 file server for mp3, avi, and
>other media using 6.0-RELEASE.
>
>It appears that the supported SATA RAID cards listed in
>/stand/help/HARDWARE.TXT are all over $400.00.  That's hard for
>to justify
>for this application, unless there are no other choices.
>
>I'd like to keep this simple, so if the price for that is $450
>bucks, well,
>I guess I'll have to deal with that.  But, I figured it
>wouldn't hurt to ask
>if are there any well supported SATA RAID cards (meaning setup
>automatically
>recognizes an array setup in the RAID card's BIOS as one drive)
>in the $100
>to $200 range.  I don't need anything other than 5, but other
>levels would
>be nice for future use.  Even better would be a motherboard with onboard
>RAID that FreeBSD supported natively.
>
>If there aren't any such cards or motherboards, are there
>relatively easy
>work-arounds using less expensive cards?
>
>--
>Mike Loiterman
>grantADLER
>Tel: 630-302-4944
>Fax: 773-442-0992
>Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>PGP Key: 0xD1B9D18E
>
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