PCIe SATA HBA for ZFS on -STABLE

[Matt Thyer]

On 1 June 2011 17:37, Jeremy Chadwick <freebsd at jdc.parodius.com> wrote:

> On Wed, Jun 01, 2011 at 02:34:55PM +0800, TJ Varghese wrote:
> > On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 10:31 PM, Freddie Cash <fjwcash at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>

[snip]


> > > SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i works exceptionally well.  These are 8-port
> HBAs
> > > using the LSI1068 chipset, supported by the mpt(4) driver.  Support 3
> Gpbs
> > > SATA/SAS, using multi-lane cables (2 connectors on the card, each
> connector
> > > supports 4 SATA ports), hot-plug, hot-swap.
> > >
> > >
> > The USAS2 (6Gbps) is supported by the mps driver (on -CURRENT, not sure
> if
> > it's in 8-STABLE yet). Perhaps you're referring to the earlier USAS which
> > does 3Gbps and is supported by the mpt driver.
>
> Folks considering use of mps(4), which was committed to RELENG_8 roughly
> around 2011/02/18 (thus is not in 8.2-RELEASE), should read the below
> threads just in case.  Always good to be educated.  Of course, the
> mailing lists are usually filled with complaints rather than success
> stories, so the tone of my mail here will therefore sound negative; I
> don't mean it that way, I just ask that people "be aware".
>
> * 2011/04/29 -- mps driver instability under stable/8
>
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-April/thread.html#62507
>
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-May/thread.html#62518
>
> * 2011/04/27 -- MPS driver: force bus rescan after remove SAS cable
>
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-April/thread.html#62438
>
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-April/thread.html#62443
>
> * 2011/03/10 -- LSI SAS2008 performance with mps(4) driver
>
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2011-March/thread.html#61862
>

Those threads assure me that the SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i with version 9
firmware and the mps(4) driver work very well as long as I'm running FreeBSD
9-CURRENT or 8-STABLE (not 8.2-RELEASE).  As I'm running -STABLE
I'm quite happy to give it a go.

To the OP (Matt Thyer):
>
> Sadly I don't have a recommendation for you, since you effectively want
> a 6-port SATA300 controller that's reliable, you're almost certainly
> going to be paying Big Bucks(tm) given the number of ports and your
> requirement that it be PCIe-based.  You state quite boldly "not wanting
> to break the bank", but what you're asking for almost certainly WILL
> break the bank.
>

Jeremy, I think you need to have another look at current prices.
I have now bought a SuperMicro AOC-USAS2-L8i on EBay from bakamuzko
with the cables I need for only $US 210.99 (I do know about the UIO
bracket).

For example, an "affordable" controller might be one driven by Silicon
> Image's SiI3124 chip -- four (4) SATA300 ports, but it's only hooked to
> PCI or PCI-X, not PCIe, which means you're susceptible to a much more
> severe bus bottleneck than with PCIe:
>

I defintely would not consider PCI for part of a ZFS array with 4 drives on
that one controller.

<http://www.siliconimage.com/products/family.aspx?id=3>

> I tend to avoid consumer-grade Marvell and JMicron SATA chipsets like
> the plague, however.  That's based on my experiences with them under
> Windows, where I would expect (truly) the drivers to be rock solid given
> the marketing demographic of the chips in question.
>

I've had the same bad experiences.

Good luck, and please let us know what controller you *do* end up going
> with and your experience with it!  Positives are as important as
> negatives.
>

I'll let you know how it works out.