Silicon Image SiI 3124 and 3132 RAID controllers

[Leslie Jensen]

On 2010-03-10 23:12, Steve Polyack wrote:
> On 03/10/10 15:56, Leslie Jensen wrote:
>>
>> I'm trying to install FreeBSD 8-RELEASE on a machine with an Abit
>> aw8-max MB. This MB has a built in SiI 3132 RAID controller. I also
>> have an addon card with a SiI 3124 RAID controller.
>>
>> The problem is that I can see the 2 disks and the RAID1 set that I
>> want to use for the system if I connect the disks to the built in 3132
>> controller. But if I connect the disks to the 3124 controller and
>> create a RAID1 set, only the disks can be seen.
>>
>> I need to be able to use both controllers because I've got four disks
>> that I want to build a RAID5 set on one of the controllers.
>>
>> Can anyone shed some light on this. Via Google I've read some articles
>> about these controllers and I'm aware that I might have to rethink
>> because of lacking support for the 3124 controller.
>>
>> I've read in the ata man page that parameters can be added to
>> /boot/device.hints but I'm not sure how to handle this during
>> installation.
>>
>> /Leslie
>>
>>
> Are you using the default ata(4) driver that FreeBSD-8 boots with, or
> are you loading the siis(4) module at boot? If you are using the ata(4)
> driver, you should try enabling the siis(4) driver by placing
> 'siis_load="YES"' in /boot/loader.conf. Beware that the names of your
> disks will transition from ad -> ada and will likely be renumbered as well.
>
> The siis(4) driver overall has a much richer feature set. I have several
> 3124 controllers which work great with it, but I have never tried using
> the controllers RAID - I simply use them as disk controllers and then
> pool the disks using ZFS.
>


I installed with the 2 disks connected to the controller that was found 
by Freebsd. Then I added siis_load="YES" to /boot/loader.conf.
Power down the machine and connected 4 drives to the 3124 controller. 
Upon restart I created a RAID5 set with the 4 drives in the controllers 
bios. Booted into FreeBSD but the RAID5 was not detected only the 
individual disks.

This controller obviously does not work as expected. I need a suggestion 
on a not to expensive RAID controller that is supported by FreeBSD so 
that I can get the RAID5 set to work.
Thanks
/Leslie