PCI-X SATA Card + Server Recommendation

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Tue, Oct 28, 2008 at 09:01:55PM +1000, Danny Carroll wrote:
> Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> > These are cards I can recommend for your situation.  Yes, they do RAID,
> > they all support JBOD; just plug the disks in and go.
> > 
> > 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)
> > 
> > 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)
> 
> One other thing that those in the know might be able to answer for me.
> When thinking about ZFS or Geom (or even vinum!) and a decent SATA card
> in JBOD mode:
> 
> What happens with the write caching?   Do the caches only work when you
> build an array?   If they also work in JBOD mode, then I guess it is
> important to disable all write caching (can you even do that with these
> cards?) unless you also buy the BBU?

This has been discussed recently on -hardware.  I will stand firm on my
statement: don't disable write caching on disks.

http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hardware/2008-October/005450.html

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |