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

[Isaac Levy]

Hey Francisco,

Thanks for hanging with me on this thread- it's providing me with a  
lot of good insight man.

On Dec 31, 2005, at 12:52 PM, Francisco Reyes wrote:

> Isaac Levy writes:
>
>> Right- but has anyone simply tried to *install* straight FreeBSD  
>> 6  using the card?
>
> I thik you would need to do a 6 Stable ISO disk... which I didn't  
> know how to do, so followed AMCCs instructions. Installed 5.4, then  
> loaded module from floppy... then upgraded to 6 stable.

OUCH OUCH OUCH.  I can't do this for production webservers, I just  
can't.
/me begins to quietly cry and whimper

>
>
>> *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...
>
>
> I believe support for the 9550SX went in around Dec 7. You would  
> need an ISO after that date.

OK- this is also in my queue for Monday afternoon to try.

>
>> The Areca Raid Controller cards have a battery backup option too,   
>> with most cards I've bought it's always an add-on option.
>
> What the tech at the vendor mentioned was beyond just battery  
> backup. Supposedly they have an algorithm that safeguards the  
> data... supposedly better than just the run off the mill backup. I  
> will as the tech if it's ok to quote his email.. he explained it  
> better. :-)

Interesting.  Please do- it sounds cool...

>
>> The 3Ware card battery add-on option fits on the card itself,  
>> which  I'd say is a consideration for a 1u system.
>
> I think the PCI next to the card would be pretty tight after adding  
> the add-on.

Yeah- I'm trying to figure out where in my 1u boxes I could put the  
thing...

>
>> /me doesn't trust any vendor or sales engineer until I live with  
>> it  for a few years...
>
> I think most people won't really be able to test most of the  
> differences.. I don't know other places, but where I work thinks  
> like "test", "benchmark".. don't get much priority.. All I hear is  
> "when will the machine be ready".. Lucky for me we recently had a  
> machine die on the second day so I use that now as a reference as  
> to why I like to keep the machine for a few days without doing much  
> real work on it.. I would hate to spend a day or two setting up a  
> machine for production to then have it die and have to return it.

Gah.  Reality strikes.

On Dec 31, 2005, at 1:03 PM, Francisco Reyes wrote:
> Isaac Levy writes:
>
>> http://www.freebsd.org/releases/6.0R/hardware-i386.html
>
> The SX cards were not supported at release.
> If memory serves me well AMCC did spanking new drivers for the SX  
> series whereas they were sharing drivers from older versions for  
> the 9500.

It's all making more sense to me now...

>
> The list of supported cards/OS is a bit convoluted

HELL YES it is.

Big picture question, aside from the NYC*BUG dmesg database, how  
could we proactively make this situation better?

>
> With any luck you will be able to use the same drivers.
>> This is worth a shot, that is now in my queue to try Monday  
>> afternoon  when I'm back with the hardware.
>
> Hope it works.

Thx- Me too! :)

>
> As for the CPU difference, I think it is a possible factor, but  
> given that we are using different drivers altogether I would not  
> say it's very conclusive.. specially since I started out with 5.4  
> and binaries from AMCC.

Agreed.

>
> Did you try the questions list or the hardware list? Also AMCC  
> seems to be responsive to FreeBSD questions. May be worth a shot  
> trying to contact them

No- but now I feel I've fully done my share to deserve to hit both of  
those resources.
That is now in my Monday Afternoon Queue as well...

Thanks again for all this info Francisco!

Rocket-
.ike