Xen, grub and suggestions for a hardware RAID?

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So I'm lazy. Or stupid. Or both. I did try to follow the
instructions  
previously pointed at for how to configure RAIDframe with
grub and  
xen but I messed it up somehow. And on another box I
installed  
RAIDframe (w/o grub or xen) only to have it run fine, but
always come  
up with dirty parity after a reboot. Haven't figured out why
yet  
(suggestions?). So I'm clearly not up to speed on RAIDframe
yet.

And as I'm short on time and also interested in hot-swap
(this will  
be a remote box where the ability to use remote hands to
swap disks  
on a running system would be really great) I'm contemplating
my first  
hardware RAID ever.

The system has 4 x SATA disks and I'm looking at either

* Adaptec 2410SA (supported by aac(4))

or

* 3ware Escalade 9500S-4LP (supported by twa(4) or twe(4),
although  
looking again that seems less than clear)

Any recommendations? Any concerns?

Johan
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Johan Ihren <johanijohani.org> writes:

> So I'm lazy. Or stupid. Or both. I did try to follow
the instructions  
> previously pointed at for how to configure RAIDframe
with grub and  
> xen but I messed it up somehow. And on another box I
installed  
> RAIDframe (w/o grub or xen) only to have it run fine,
but always come  
> up with dirty parity after a reboot. Haven't figured
out why yet  
> (suggestions?). So I'm clearly not up to speed on
RAIDframe yet.

Check that you have swapoff=YES.  Dirty parity on reboot is
often a
sign of swap holding the raid set open.

Johan Ihren <johanijohani.org> writes:

> So I'm lazy. Or stupid. Or both. I did try to follow
the instructions  
> previously pointed at for how to configure RAIDframe
with grub and  
> xen but I messed it up somehow. And on another box I
installed  
> RAIDframe (w/o grub or xen) only to have it run fine,
but always come  
> up with dirty parity after a reboot. Haven't figured
out why yet  
> (suggestions?). So I'm clearly not up to speed on
RAIDframe yet.

Check that you have swapoff=YES.  Dirty parity on reboot is
often a
sign of swap holding the raid set open.

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>> So I'm lazy. Or stupid. Or both. I did try to
follow the instructions
>> previously pointed at for how to configure
RAIDframe with grub and
>> xen but I messed it up somehow. And on another box
I installed
>> RAIDframe (w/o grub or xen) only to have it run
fine, but always come
>> up with dirty parity after a reboot. Haven't
figured out why yet
>> (suggestions?). So I'm clearly not up to speed on
RAIDframe yet.
>
> Check that you have swapoff=YES.  Dirty parity on
reboot is often a
> sign of swap holding the raid set open.

Already have swapoff=YES. Sorry, should have mentioned
that.

Johan

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Hash: SHA1

>> So I'm lazy. Or stupid. Or both. I did try to
follow the instructions
>> previously pointed at for how to configure
RAIDframe with grub and
>> xen but I messed it up somehow. And on another box
I installed
>> RAIDframe (w/o grub or xen) only to have it run
fine, but always come
>> up with dirty parity after a reboot. Haven't
figured out why yet
>> (suggestions?). So I'm clearly not up to speed on
RAIDframe yet.
>
> Check that you have swapoff=YES.  Dirty parity on
reboot is often a
> sign of swap holding the raid set open.

Already have swapoff=YES. Sorry, should have mentioned
that.

Johan

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Johan,

> The system has 4 x SATA disks and I'm looking at
either
>
> * Adaptec 2410SA (supported by aac(4))

We have that one running in a number of machines, from a box
still running
NetBSD 2.0.2 to a few boxen on 3.1, including two machines
running
Xen. They Just Work, have a decent Bios to configure most
things from and
we haven't had any serious problems in changing disks with
them.  They can
even reconstruct their RAID set whilst you're already
running the system --
this just leads to a disk performance decrease, but not
machine downtime.

I don't have first hand experience with the 3ware SATA
cards, but I'd just
by the Adaptecs again because we haven't been burned by
them.

Konrad

Johan,

> The system has 4 x SATA disks and I'm looking at
either
>
> * Adaptec 2410SA (supported by aac(4))

We have that one running in a number of machines, from a box
still running
NetBSD 2.0.2 to a few boxen on 3.1, including two machines
running
Xen. They Just Work, have a decent Bios to configure most
things from and
we haven't had any serious problems in changing disks with
them.  They can
even reconstruct their RAID set whilst you're already
running the system --
this just leads to a disk performance decrease, but not
machine downtime.

I don't have first hand experience with the 3ware SATA
cards, but I'd just
by the Adaptecs again because we haven't been burned by
them.

Konrad

On Tue, Feb 06, 2007 at 02:32:20AM +0100, Johan Ihren
wrote:
> The system has 4 x SATA disks and I'm looking at
either
[...]
> Any recommendations?

I've got an Intel SRCS14L RAID Controller:

cp0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 22 (irq 11)
icp0: model <SRCS14L>, firmware <Firmware>, 2
channel(s), 64MB memory
icpsp0 at icp0 unit 100: physical SCSI channel 0
scsibus0 at icpsp0: 16 targets, 8 luns per target
icpsp1 at icp0 unit 101: physical SCSI channel 1
scsibus1 at icpsp1: 16 targets, 8 luns per target
ld0 at icp0 unit 0: <PD_A000>, type: RAID-1, status:
optimal
ld1 at icp0 unit 1: <PD_B000>, type: RAID-1, status:
optimal

> Any concerns?

The Intel card works fine and delivers good performance (I'm
using two
RAID 1 volumes). The disadvantages are that I need to use
the BIOS or
an DOS boot floppy for RAID management or S.M.A.R.T.
checking.

	Kind regards

-- 
Matthias Scheler                                  http://zhadum.org.uk/

On Tue, Feb 06, 2007 at 02:32:20AM +0100, Johan Ihren
wrote:
> The system has 4 x SATA disks and I'm looking at
either
[...]
> Any recommendations?

I've got an Intel SRCS14L RAID Controller:

cp0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 22 (irq 11)
icp0: model <SRCS14L>, firmware <Firmware>, 2
channel(s), 64MB memory
icpsp0 at icp0 unit 100: physical SCSI channel 0
scsibus0 at icpsp0: 16 targets, 8 luns per target
icpsp1 at icp0 unit 101: physical SCSI channel 1
scsibus1 at icpsp1: 16 targets, 8 luns per target
ld0 at icp0 unit 0: <PD_A000>, type: RAID-1, status:
optimal
ld1 at icp0 unit 1: <PD_B000>, type: RAID-1, status:
optimal

> Any concerns?

The Intel card works fine and delivers good performance (I'm
using two
RAID 1 volumes). The disadvantages are that I need to use
the BIOS or
an DOS boot floppy for RAID management or S.M.A.R.T.
checking.

	Kind regards

-- 
Matthias Scheler                                  http://zhadum.org.uk/

On Tue, Feb 06, 2007 at 02:32:20AM +0100, Johan Ihren
wrote:
> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
> Hash: SHA1
> 
> So I'm lazy. Or stupid. Or both. I did try to follow
the instructions  
> previously pointed at for how to configure RAIDframe
with grub and  
> xen but I messed it up somehow. And on another box I
installed  
> RAIDframe (w/o grub or xen) only to have it run fine,
but always come  
> up with dirty parity after a reboot. Haven't figured
out why yet  
> (suggestions?). So I'm clearly not up to speed on
RAIDframe yet.
> 
> And as I'm short on time and also interested in
hot-swap (this will  
> be a remote box where the ability to use remote hands
to swap disks  
> on a running system would be really great) I'm
contemplating my first  
> hardware RAID ever.
> 
> The system has 4 x SATA disks and I'm looking at
either
> 
> * Adaptec 2410SA (supported by aac(4))
> 
> or
> 
> * 3ware Escalade 9500S-4LP (supported by twa(4) or
twe(4), although  
> looking again that seems less than clear)

I have 2 9500S-8LP in a server here, it's fast (supported
by
twa) and I didn't have any issues with theses so far. 

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyerantioche.eu.org>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la
difference
--