possible issues with Dell/Perc5 raid

[Tom Judge]

Randy Schultz wrote:
> On Fri, 11 May 2007, Tom Judge spaketh thusly:
> 
> -}> -- 
> -}<SNIP>
> -}From the boot messages you have included below it seems that you have a Dell
> -}SAS-5i (Internal PCIe) controller and not a Perc/5[ie].
> 
> Tnx Tom.   Yeah I knew that but didn't catch it in the Subject:  The perc/5 is
> on another machine.
> 
> -}
> -}The SAS-5 known to have very poor performance (1Mb/s 100%busy) under certain
> -}loads (cvsup).
> 
> Hmm.  Did not know that.
> 
> Since I have a second machine just like this one, I also think I'm going to
> try pulling out the SAS 5i card and going with a software mirror package like
> gvinum or gmirror.  Given the #'s Bill Moran posted and the horrible #'s you
> list above, this may be a viable option.
> 

I have 6 boxes with the SAS5i controller in them so far we have replaced 
   2 of the controllers with Areca PCIe controllers.  However I have yet 
to test the performance of them (they are supposed to be very good).

Tom