PCI-X SATA Card + Server Recommendation

[Danny Carroll]

Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> http://www.highpoint-tech.com/USA/series_2000.htm
> HighPoint RocketRAID 2210  (hptrr(4) driver; be sure to read NOTES)
> HighPoint RocketRAID 2220  (hptrr(4) driver; be sure to read NOTES)
> HighPoint RocketRAID 2224  (hptrr(4) driver; be sure to read NOTES)
> HighPoint RocketRAID 2240  (hptrr(4) driver; be sure to read NOTES)

Can you (or someone else) please tell me a little more about this?   Do
the drives (in JBOD mode) present themselves as part of the ATA bus or
SCSI bus?

Do you know if NCQ and SATA-II support is in there?

Can you do Smart queries to the drives?

> http://www.areca.com.tw/products/pcix.htm
> Areca ARC-1110    (arcmsr(4) driver)
> Areca ARC-1120    (arcmsr(4) driver)
> Areca ARC-1130    (arcmsr(4) driver)
> Areca ARC-1160    (arcmsr(4) driver)
> Areca ARC-1130ML  (arcmsr(4) driver)
> Areca ARC-1160ML  (arcmsr(4) driver)
> 
> The FreeBSD community members who have Areca cards have been thrilled
> with them, and *do* use the native RAID features reliably.


Personally I am torn right now between an Adapted 31205, a 3ware
9650SE-12ML and an Areca 1230.  I'm going for ZFS so I really want a
fast SATA card with lots of ports (8-12) and no raid functionality.

There is not much out there and it's all expensive.

> There's a bunch of Supermicro systems which meet your needs.  The first
> four are very new, and use the Intel X48 chipset.  I don't know of any
> FreeBSD people using the X7SBU board, but I'm sure there are some.
> 
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/1U/
> Supermicro SuperServer 5015B-URB   (~US$975)
> Supermicro SuperServer 5015B-NTRB  (~US$975)
> Supermicro SuperServer 5015B-UB    (~US$785)
> Supermicro SuperServer 5015B-NTB   (~US$785)
> Supermicro SuperServer 5015B-MTB   (~US$655)
> 
> bsdhwmon(8) supports the 5015B-MTB (X7SBi), but doesn't support the
> others (X7SBU).  If someone out there has an X7SBU, please get in
> touch with me so I can add support for it!

I have an X7SBE, so I'm, keen to try out bsdhwmon.   Installing right now...

Out of curiosity (and way OT)I get a lot of ACPI messages on my
supermicro board:

Oct 22 11:50:29 nas kernel: ACPI Error (psargs-0459): [\_SB_.PCI0.PSMS]
Namespace lookup failure, AE_NOT_FOUND
Oct 22 11:50:29 nas kernel: ACPI Error (psparse-0626): Method
parse/execution failed [\_SB_.PCI0.LPC0.SIO_.MSE0._STA] (Node
0xffffff00013a6260), AE_NOT_FOUND

If you use supermicro boards a lot then perhaps you have seen these?

-D