Recommended RAID controller

[Scott Long]

Walter Vaughan wrote:

> I am looking to build two new servers, and
> plan on using freeBSD. I've read the last
> 5 months of this list and while I haven't seen
> anything to scare me, I'm looking for advice on
> something that'll work pretty much out of the block
> with 5.2.1 that has pretty good tools support.
> I was all fired up about a Zero-channel Adaptec,
> but after reading it's only 4.* tools supported
> I not so sure.
> I liked what I've read about Intel's SATA
> raid that uses the iir driver, but again
> I am worried about administrative tools.
> 
> Thanks
> -- 

Let me go through the list:

Adaptec:
  - There are two families of controller here.  The 2010/2015
    ZCR cards are all that is left of the old family.  It is
    supported under 4.x and 5.x, though there are issues with
    the management tools that require a few tricks to overcome
    in 5.x.  I'm also not terribly happy with the driver, but
    I recently started cleaning it up.  Adaptec provides no
    support nor updates for the driver.  If you have a strong
    desire to use Adaptec ZCR, this is the only choice right now,
    but a lot of people use it and are happy with it.
  - The newer family of cards is a bit better in my opinion.
    Adaptec hasn't released a newer version of the management
    app for FreeBSD in several years, but the one that shipped
    with the 5400S will work for all cards in the family.
    Alternatively, the Linux CLI tool that Adaptec does ship
    will work under FreeBSD in linux emulation mode.  The driver
    is well maintained.

Intel:
  - The ICP/Vortex/Intel controllers are actually owned and
    produced by Adaptec now.  The driver is fairly good and is
    actively maintained by the vendor.  A management app is
    available for FreeBSD, but it will not work with FreeBSD 5.2.x
    due to an inadvertent IOCTL incompatibility.  I have changes
    from the vendor pending right now that should hopefully fix
    this for 5.3.  In the mean time, the patch that I committed to
    5.2-CURRENT last month should work ok.

AMI/LSI MegaRAID:
  - This hardware used to be well supported, but the vendor no
    longer provides regular updates.  I don't know whether a
    management app exists or not, though I doubt that it does.

3Ware:
  - Both the 6xxx/7xxx/8xxx and the 9xxx generation cards are
    actively supported on FreeBSD by the vendor and are used by a
    large, well-known web portal company.  Not sure what the
    status of management apps are.

Compaq CISS:
  - Driver is well supported by the FreeBSD community and is popular
    amoung users.

IBM ServeRAID:
  - IBM provided an initial driver, and work has gone on over the
    past year to clean it up and make it more robust.  It only exists
    for 5.x, but backporting it to 4.x would only take a few days.
    No management app exists, nor can the Linux apps run on FreeBSD.
    This hardware is owned and produced by Adaptec also.

If I were to go the ZCR route right now, it would likely be with the
Intel card.  I've just started playing with them, and it has been a
generally positive experience.  The fact that they actively support
FreeBSD is a big plus.  For SATA, it would be a toss-up between 3ware
and Adaptec.  For U320 SCSI that you can buy in the channel (as opposed
to only buying from the vendor), Adaptec probably wins.

Scott