most rock solid SATA Raid card for 5.4-RELEASE and 6.0-RELEASE

[Scott Long]

user wrote:

> 
> On Mon, 14 Nov 2005, Scott Long wrote:
> 
> 
>>The 16-channel 2610SA is supported in FreeBSD 5.4, just under a slightly
>>mangled name (21610SA, IIRC.  I was apparently confused about the name
>>of this when I added it).
> 
> 
> 
> I don't think so ... the 2610sa is a different thing, I think - it is a
> Dell CERC controller - here is one on ebay:
> 
> http://tinyurl.com/bbmnm
> 
> and as you can see, it is 6-port only.
> 
> 
> 
>>I'll also be updating the RELENG_5 code stream soon with the new aac
>>improvements that are in 6.0.  This will include the corrected name for
>>this card as well as IDs for many new cards.
> 
> 
> 
> Can you keep this Dell CERC (2610sa) in mind, and grab those identifiers
> in the link from my original post and stick them in as well, if
> appropriate ?
> 
> 
> 
>>As for general SATA RAID support in FreeBSD, it has gotten better in the
>>past year.  Adaptec has started putting engineering resources into the
>>aac driver and has also updated the aaccli tool.  The LSI Megaraid
>>driver (AMR) has gotten a lot of improvements from both the community
>>and from LSI.  They also have a FreeBSD management tool, but it's a bit
>>primitive.  Areca has come onto the scene with full FreeBSD driver and
>>application support.  The Highpoint RocketRAID series is also fairly
>>well supported.  And there is always the 3ware 9000 series.  I assume
>>that Promise SATA is also supported, but I don't know much about it.
>>So yeah, there are a bunch of options.  Email me in private if you want
>>my personal recommendations.
> 
> 
> 
> Ok, all of the items you list in this last paragraph - the adaptec
> engineering, the better aaccli - are all of those to be found in
> 5.4-RELEASE, or do I need to go to 6.0 ?
> 
> Thanks.
> 

The updated aaccli is probably available from the Adaptec website and
should work just fine with 5.4.  The updated driver is only in 6.0 right
now.  Like I said above, I'll be updating the RELENG_5 code stream with
it soon, so that if there is a 5.5 it will have it.  That said, I'd
highly recommend that you investigate 6.0 as it has many other
improvements, and upgrading from 5.4 is very very easy.

Scott