I second that question, and also ask what brand folks like for performance and compatibility?
Ebay is killing me with vast choice and no detail... ;) Nathan. Al Hopper wrote: > On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 12:57 PM, Neal Pollack <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: >> Ian Collins wrote: >>> Brian Hechinger wrote: >>>> On Wed, Aug 20, 2008 at 05:17:45PM +1200, Ian Collins wrote: >>>> >>>>> Has anyone here had any luck using a CF to SATA adapter? >>>>> >>>>> I've just tried an Addonics ADSACFW CF to SATA adaptor with an 8GB card >>>>> that I wanted to use for a boot pool and even though the BIOS reports the >>>>> disk, Solaris B95 (or the installer) doesn't see it. >>>>> >>>> I tried this a while back with an IDE to CF adapter. Real nice looking >>>> one too. >>>> >>>> It would constantly cause OpenBSD to panic. >>>> >>>> I would recommend against using this, unless you get real lucky. If you >>>> want >>>> flash to boot from, buy one of the ones that is specifically made for it >>>> (not >>>> CF, but industrial grade flash meant to be a HDD). Those things work a LOT >>>> better. I can look up the details of the ones my friend uses if you'd >>>> like. >>>> >>>> >>> I was looking to run some tests with a CF boot drive before we get an >>> X4540, which has a CF slot. The installer did see the attached USB sticks... >> My team does some of the testing inside Sun for the CF boot devices. >> We've used a number of IDE attaced CF adapters, such as; >> http://www.addonics.com/products/flash_memory_reader/ad44midecf.asp >> and also some random models from www.frys.com. >> We also test the CF boot feature on various Sun rack servers and blades >> that use a CF socket. >> >> I have not tested the SATA adapters but would not expect issues. >> I'd like to know if you find issues. >> >> >> The IDE attached devices use the legacy ATA/IDE device driver software, >> which had some bugs fixed for DMA and misc CF specific issues. >> It would be interesting to see if a SATA adapter for CF, set in bios to >> use AHCI instead of Legacy/IDE mode, would have any issues with >> the AHCI device driver software. I've had no reason to test this yet, since >> the Sun HW models build the CF socket right onto the motherboard/bus. >> I can't find a reason to worry about hot-plug, since removing the boot >> "drive" while Solaris is running would be, um, somewhat interesting :-) >> >> True, the enterprise grade devices are higher quality and will last longer. >> But do not underestimate the current (2008) device wear leveling firmware >> that controls the CF memory usage, and hence life span. Our in house >> destructive life span testing shows that the commercial grade CF device >> will last longer than the motherboard will. The consumer grade devices > > Interesting thread - thanks to all the contributors. I've seen, on > several different forums, that many CF users lean towards Sandisk for > reliability and longevity. Does anyone else see consensus in terms of > CF brands? > >> that you find in the store or on mail order, may or may not be current >> generation, so your device lifespan will vary. It should still be rather >> good for a boot device, because Solaris does very little writing to the >> boot "disk". You can review configuration ideas to maximize the life >> of your CF device in this Solaris white paper for non-volatile memory; >> http://www.sun.com/bigadmin/features/articles/nvm_boot.jsp >> >> I hope this helps. >> >> Cheers, >> >> Neal Pollack >> >>> Any further information welcome. >>> >>> Ian > > Regards, > -- ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// // Nathan Kroenert [EMAIL PROTECTED] // // Systems Engineer Phone: +61 3 9869-6255 // // Sun Microsystems Fax: +61 3 9869-6288 // // Level 7, 476 St. Kilda Road Mobile: 0419 305 456 // // Melbourne 3004 Victoria Australia // ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// _______________________________________________ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
