[nycbug-talk] 2x 3Ware Escalade 9500S-4LP SATA

[Isaac Levy]

Hi Francisco, All,

On Dec 31, 2005, at 2:21 AM, Francisco Reyes wrote:

> Charles Sprickman writes:
>
>> That said, many there are talking about SATA RAID.  These are  
>> database people, mind you, who are very picky about storage.  The  
>> 9500 series cards are very highly recommended
>
> We just got a machine with a 9550SX on it.
> It was a hassle installing FreeBSD on it. Had to boot a loadable  
> module from a floppy. Once the machine was upgraded to 6 Stable it  
> was fine since the driver for the card was added in early December  
> to the source tree.

Right- but has anyone simply tried to *install* straight FreeBSD 6  
using the card?  *Not fun*, so far.  The TWE driver is not loading  
properly after installing, so it boots ok from the bootonly ISO, but  
after a fairly 'stock' install, (no wacky options), rebooting (for  
the first machine boot) just sits tossing errors over and over...

>
>
>> , but there's also a brand that I have not heard of before called  
>> "Areca": http://www.areca.com.tw/index/html/index.htm
>
> I have read very good reviews and good feedback on other lists.  
> Also they are one of the few cards that can do RAID 6 (parity  
> distributed to 2 disks).
>
> The reason we went with 3Ware in the latest server is because the  
> vendor of the machine mentioned that 3Ware had a unique technology  
> which would better safeguard the data upon power loss. He said that  
> one would have to turn off the cache in the Areca to be as safe as  
> the 3Ware.. and that the 3Ware with cache enable was safe.. as long  
> as one got power back before the card batteries ran out.

The Areca Raid Controller cards have a battery backup option too,  
with most cards I've bought it's always an add-on option.

 From what I found online, the Areca battery is designed to sit in  
the metal PCI backplane, (doesn't plug into the PCI slot), because  
the card is fat enough on it's own.
http://www.pc-pitstop.com/sata_raid_controllers/

The 3Ware card battery add-on option fits on the card itself, which  
I'd say is a consideration for a 1u system...  (Although the battery  
backup could fit elsewhere in the server case?)

Just tossing that info into this thread for the record.

>> These are getting very positive reviews, and Areca's benchmarks  
>> claim that they beat out 3Ware as well.

Gotcha.  If someone has an Areca card, I have a spare of the 3Ware,  
we could do a NYC*BUG test...

>
> Have seen a few reviews where the Areca's did better, but according  
> to the an engineer where we bought our latest server the 3Ware  
> 9550SX outperforms the areca offerings.

Right- hrm.
/me doesn't trust any vendor or sales engineer until I live with it  
for a few years...

Rocket-
.ike