Server Hardware Recommendations

[Gary D. Margiotta]

>>
>> I've yet to have a good experience with SATA and FreeBSD......
>>
>> ..david
>
> We only got 1 server with a SATA drive, a DL145. It is our sniffer
> box (runs FreeBSD), but the disk isn't used much in it.
>
> All the others have SCSI (U320 or SAS).

I run a lot of supermicro and tyan based servers, with the older ones 
being PATA, the new being SATA, and I've had not a single problem with 
SATA under FreeBSD.

I am running 4-STABLE on the pata boxes, and the new SATA boxes I've been 
bringing up have been 6-STABLE boxes.  FreeBSD has no problems with 
detecting the drives, or the RAID controllers (hardware and software based 
Promise, Highpoint and 3Ware), and I'm extremely pleased with the 
performance of these boxes.

I avoid any SII-based controllers like the plague, and have sparingly used 
onboard ICH chipsets (although a new batch of servers I'm looking at have 
those onboard, so I'll have more info then I guess).

I'm running some older Compaq DL360-G1 1U boxes with onboard SCSI Smart 
Array controllers, with 18 and 36GB drives in RAID-1 configs as well, and 
they are rock solid.  They are our main MX machines, passing upwards of 
30-40k e-mails per day, and have not had a single problem with them (aside 
from a hard drive dying, and it was a simple pull and plug hot-swap, it 
auto-rebuilt on the fly, no downtime).

I've used some Dells in the past as well, always rock solid, almost zero 
problems, although I haven't used any of their newer line 1-2U servers, 
mine were older 1200, 2300, 2450's.

>
> -- 
> Regards, Ulf.
>
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
> Ulf Zimmermann, 1525 Pacific Ave., Alameda, CA-94501, #: 510-865-0204
> You can find my resume at: http://seven.Alameda.net/~ulf/resume.html

-Gary