hba recommendations for norco 4020 s/w raid set up

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Jan 25, 2006
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57
hey all
need some HBA recommendations for a software nas.
it'll be the classic norco4020, software raid, free nas set up.
trouble is i cannot source any super micro controllers
so i was hoping some of you might pop in suitable recommendations

SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 PCI-X
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm
any viable alternatives to that would be nice, looking around the same price.

am going to run with this in an amd x4 630
if anyone can recommend some boards too, that'd be helpful also.
thanks again.
 
Don't go PCI; it would be so bad for your performance. And it wouldn't have much value for the future as well.

Instead, if you can't buy the Supermicro USAS controller, then try getting the Intel SASUC8I; which uses the same LSI SAS1068E chip as the Supermicro.

RAID_SASUC8I_lg.jpg


Product page:
http://www.intel.com/products/server/raid-controllers/SASUC8I/SASUC8I-overview.htm

PDF:
http://www.intel.com/Assets/PDF/prodbrief/RAID_SASUC8I_prodbrief.pdf
 
I just did a 5bay nas with FreeNAS and still monkey around it
I can xfer from my Win7-32bit to this NAS @ 50MB~ 65MB/s. YES, I'm talking about MB not Mb.
and from freeNAS to Win7-32 I got about 45MB/sec, built-in GbE port

Monitoring the LAN graph, my set up even have a spike as high as 95MB/s (760Mbps) about 10~15sec the drop to 50~60MB...

Real nice for transfer/copy file. No problem of stream the BD.ISO movies to my HD players, two at the same time One at Family Room and one in Master-Bed Room

And my set up is pretty cheap.
less than $830 for a 10TB NAS

ITX board with Celeron 220 @ $70.00
512MB DDR2 533MHz @ $12.00
SPM393 - hardware raid @ $120.00
USB pen for OS $10.00
5x Hitachi 2.0TB @ $139.00/ea
 
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I second sub.mesa's SASUC8I reccomendation (I just bought one).

Intel NICs on both ends mean streaming video is not an issue and 70-115MB/s sequential from a single disk is normal over a GigE connection.
 
If your just needing software raid, what about the AOC-SASLP-MV8.

I'm not familiar with the SASUC8I, so I'm not sure if it is worth the extra cash... so those with more knowledge, please don't flame my suggestion ;)
 
argh, i've been sifting the forums and now want to move to zfs after reading most of sub's posts. i am just ganna have to get the free nas iso and mess around.
anywho; controllers, im think i will have to bite the bullet and check out amazon, since i cannot find any locally. add some more if you think it'll help but im tossing up between these three.

http://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Ad...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277814118&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Supermicro-Ad...3?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277814118&sr=1-3

http://www.amazon.com/Intel-SASUC8I...1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1277814207&sr=1-1

like i mentioned: software raid, around these prices, pci-e -thanks sub... erm yeah i have probably missed something or made a mistake please highlight or link any viable alternatives. thanks team.
 
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The last two use the same LSI 1068E chip which works great with both FreeBSD and OpenSolaris (the two main OS with ZFS incorporated). The first, however, uses another chip and this card does not work well; i'm talking about the SuperMicro AOC-SASLP-MV8; i do not recommend this card and it's basically broken on FreeBSD; lots of errors and headaches; highly recommend another controller.

The LSI 1068E is known to work near-perfect on FreeBSD and OpenSolaris; meaning all the important OS suitable for ZFS can work well with this controller. It uses little power, had good performance and can be used in HBA-only mode (thus only an AHCI SATA controller; no RAID).

Note however that SuperMicro UIO cards have a bracket that does not fit a normal ATX case. No real problem as you can remove the bracket, but if you prefer a solution that doesn't have these minor issues, you can opt for the above mentioned Intel SASUC8I with the same chip and can also work without RAID.
 
How about an Areca 1300-4i + HP SAS expander?
or
Areca ARC-1300ix-16
 
I'm not sure how expanders would influence ZFS performance, as ZFS likes to do many things in parallel and the expanders might create bottlenecks that i'm not familiar with. If it all possible, invest in multiple HBA cards if you go for the ZFS option.

Areca does have nice management, support and warranty, however.
 
Stock firmware now, I'm guessing LSI this weekend.

I'd appreciate it if you'd post your experiences with flashing the IT firmware, and with how things work afterwards.

I'm considering the Intel HBA and also the equivalent LSI one. The LSI one is more expensive, but I believe it already comes with the IT firmware.

In case it is not clear, I believe the IT firmware makes each attached drive appear separately, just like it were plugged into a motherboard SATA port. While the IR firmware would need to be set up with each drive as pass-thru or RAID 0 to make them show up separately.
 
well, i have gone with the intel SASUC8I as it was the only one i could get into aus; looking forward to see how pjkenned goes with the re flash, do let us know.
yay time to order the case, it'll be xmas before everything gets here.
 
250$ delivered from ebay in the states, happy to link you if you want.
man i wishi got it when the dollar was higher.
oh well. ebay was a little cheaper than amazon i noticed. still couldn't find any viable supermicro's either so had to settle for this, a little more expensive but once it is all hummin' away i don't think i'll regret it.
 
In my norco 4020 case: using 2xMVSAS + 4 ports of the ich10, software RAID5 on linux kernel 2.6.35-rc3. No problems yet.
 
250$ delivered from ebay in the states, happy to link you if you want.
man i wishi got it when the dollar was higher.
oh well. ebay was a little cheaper than amazon i noticed. still couldn't find any viable supermicro's either so had to settle for this, a little more expensive but once it is all hummin' away i don't think i'll regret it.



If you could please that would great.
 
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