Re: PCIe SATA HBA for ZFS on -STABLE

On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 7:31 AM, Freddie Cash <fjwcash@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
On Tue, May 31, 2011 at 5:48 AM, Matt Thyer <matt.thyer@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

What do people recommend for 8-STABLE as a PCIe SATA II HBA for someone
using ZFS ?

Not wanting to break the bank.
Not interested in SATA III 6GB at this time... though it could be useful if
I add an SSD for... (is it ZIL ?).
Can this be added at any time ?

The main issue is I need at least 10 ports total for all existing drives...
ZIL would require 11 so ideally we are talking a 6 port HBA.


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.

These are UIO cards, so the bracket that comes with it doesn't work with
normal cases (the bracket is on the wrong side of the card; they're made for
SuperMicro's UIO-based motherboards).  However, these are normal PCIe cards
and work in any PCIe slot.  You either have to remove the bracket, or you
can purchase separate brackets online.

These cards are recommended on the zfs-discuss mailing list.  They are only
~$120 CDN at places like cdw.ca and newegg.ca.

+1 for LSI1068(e) controller + mpt driver. It's cheap and it works.
Those LSI controllers are often hiding behind other brands. SuperMicro
mentioned above is one. Intel would be another -- search for Intel
SASUC8I. Tyan also sells one as TYAN P3208SR. LSI-branded controllers
tend to be a bit more expensive than rebranded ones, though
functionality is the same and you can often cross-flash firmware.

Keep in mind that HBAs based on LSI1068(e) can't handle hard drives
larger than 2TB and will truncate larger drive capacity to 2TB.

As for the SSD, you may want to hook them up to on-board SATA ports.
In my not-very scientific benchmark Intel's X25-M SSD connected to
on-board SATA port on ICH10 was able to deliver ~20% more reads/sec
than the same SSD connected to LSI1068 based controller.

--Artem
_______________________________________________
freebsd-stable@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-stable
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-stable-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx"

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Supermicro SAS controller
    ... It was available with either SAS or SATA connectors. ... I have two cards and eight sata ports on the mainboard. ... But then, you will need SAS controller with expansion capabilities, ...
    (Debian-User)
  • Re: what add on pci-e SATA 2 controller to use?
    ... NVIDIA SATA Raid drivers? ... There are also cards with SIl3114 on it, ... It has four SATA ports. ...
    (alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus)
  • Re: What HD Tuner used in Development of MCE2005
    ... The Silicon Image controller chip in question is a SIL3112 and could be on ... your MOBO or on a separate SATA controller cards and hould show in Device ... I have an Intel SATA controller on my MOBO ...
    (microsoft.public.windows.mediacenter)
  • Re: hardware for home use large storage
    ... There seem to be no decent add-on SATA cards that play nice with FreeBSD other than that weird supermicro card that has to be physically hacked about to fit. ... Some cards won't let you run the drives in passthrough mode and seem to all want to stick their grubby little RAID paws into your JBOD setup (i.e. the only way to have minimal ... Don't let the RAID label scare you--that stuff is off by default and the controller just presents the disks to the operating system. ...
    (freebsd-stable)
  • Re: Raid Card controller for FC System
    ... Which model / type of ATA Raid card controller is good for work with New FC System? ... The cheapest 4-port raid cards are typically $300US, the 8-port cards are quite a bit more. ... Can you get 4+ port SATA cards that don't claim to be "RAID" cards? ...
    (Fedora)