SATA: RAID 5 controller recommendations

[Mike Tancsa]

At 07:18 AM 19/10/2005, Richard Tector wrote:
>I've got a system here running 6.0-RC1 with the 8 port PCI-X Areca card and
>a 7 disk RAID5 array of 320GB Western Digital disks. I have to agree with
>Mike here, they are indeed extremely fast and I can't say I've ever had any
>issues with it. Recommended.
>
>However, I haven't had much cause to use the CLI management utils, so I
>can't really comment there.


They are adequate. Not as nice as the 3dm program, but good enough 
for monitoring / checking.

Copyright (c) 2004 Areca, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Areca CLI, Version: 1.3( FreeBSD )


Controllers List
----------------------------------------
Controller1: ARC-1110
Current Controller: Controller1
----------------------------------------

CMD     Description
==========================================================
main    Show Command Categories.
set     General Settings.
rsf     RaidSet Functions.
vsf     VolumeSet Functions.
disk    Physical Drive Functions.
sys     System Functions.
event   Event Functions.
hw      Hardware Monitor Information.
exit    Exit CLI.
==========================================================
Command Format: <CMD> [Sub-Command] [Parameters].
Note: Use <CMD> -h or -help to get details.

CLI> hw info
The Hardware Monitor Information
===========================================
Fan#1 Speed (RPM)  : 2970
HDD #1 Temp.       : 33
HDD #2 Temp.       : 34
HDD #3 Temp.       : 33
HDD #4 Temp.       : 34
===========================================
GuiErrMsg<0x00>: Success.


CLI> vsf info
  # Name             Raid# Level   Capacity 
Ch/Id/Lun  State
===============================================================================
  1 Volume Set # 00    1   Raid5    750.0GB 00/00/00   Normal
===============================================================================
GuiErrMsg<0x00>: Success.

CLI>

CLI> event info
Date-Time               Device              Event Type
===============================================================================
2005-10-3  22:39:56     H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-9-7  4:2:4         H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  16:52:0       H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:48:4       H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:38:49      H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:36:2       IDE Channel # 4     Device Inserted
2005-8-3  15:35:55      H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:34:6       H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:30:5       H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:28:57      H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:25:3       H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-8-3  15:24:19      IDE Channel # 4     Device Inserted
2005-8-3  15:24:11      IDE Channel # 3     Device Inserted
2005-8-3  15:24:8       IDE Channel # 3     Device Removed
2005-8-3  15:23:22      H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-7-15  14:45:9      H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On
2005-7-15  11:45:33     H/W MONITOR         Raid Powered On


# diskinfo -t da0
da0
         512             # sectorsize
         749999751168    # mediasize in bytes (698G)
         1464843264      # mediasize in sectors
         91182           # Cylinders according to firmware.
         255             # Heads according to firmware.
         63              # Sectors according to firmware.

Seek times:
         Full stroke:      250 iter in   1.309230 sec =    5.237 msec
         Half stroke:      250 iter in   3.694140 sec =   14.777 msec
         Quarter stroke:   500 iter in   2.018954 sec =    4.038 msec
         Short forward:    400 iter in   0.805780 sec =    2.014 msec
         Short backward:   400 iter in   1.694952 sec =    4.237 msec
         Seq outer:       2048 iter in   0.205310 sec =    0.100 msec
         Seq inner:       2048 iter in   0.200980 sec =    0.098 msec
Transfer rates:
         outside:       102400 kbytes in   1.019945 sec =   100398 kbytes/sec
         middle:        102400 kbytes in   1.300898 sec =    78715 kbytes/sec
         inside:        102400 kbytes in   1.185229 sec =    86397 kbytes/sec



# dd if=/dev/zero of=/spool/test bs=32k count=20000
20000+0 records in
20000+0 records out
655360000 bytes transferred in 7.587819 secs (86370011 bytes/sec)


>Richard
>
>-----Original Message-----
>From: owner-freebsd-performance at freebsd.org
>[mailto:owner-freebsd-performance at freebsd.org] On Behalf Of Mike Tancsa
>Sent: 19 October 2005 04:45
>To: Steven Hartland; freebsd-performance at freebsd.org
>Subject: Re: SATA: RAID 5 controller recommendations
>
>
>At 06:36 PM 18/10/2005, Steven Hartland wrote:
> >Anyone got any SATA RAID 5 controllers they can recommend 64Bit PCIX.
>
>I use the 3ware line (8xxx) and they are very stable, but not the
>fastest.  For speed, check out the cards from Areca.  Native FreeBSD
>support and they are FAST
>
>http://www.areca.com.tw/products/html/pcix-sata.htm
>
>
>          ---Mike
>
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