zfs discuss - Jul 2006 - Good 8 or 16 port x86 PCI SATA card

Hi All,

I have looked on the HCL list for Sol 10 x86 without much luck.  I am
looking for a 8 or 16 port SATA card for a JBOD Sol 10 x86 ZFS
installation.  Anyone know of one that is well supported in Sol 10?  I
am starting to do some testing with an LSI Logic 320-XLP SATA RAID card,
but so far as I can tell, it does not want to do JBOD.  For several
reasons, I would rather have ZFS handle the RAID.

Any recommendations would be appreciated.  I have a 16 bay triple
redundant PS case here that I would really like to use with ZFS.
Unfortunately my CPU is 32 bit, so that may have to change.

Thanks,
Shannon

>Hi All,
>
>I have looked on the HCL list for Sol 10 x86 without much luck.  I am
>looking for a 8 or 16 port SATA card for a JBOD Sol 10 x86 ZFS
>installation.  Anyone know of one that is well supported in Sol 10?  I
>am starting to do some testing with an LSI Logic 320-XLP SATA RAID card,
>but so far as I can tell, it does not want to do JBOD.  For several
>reasons, I would rather have ZFS handle the RAID.
>
>Any recommendations would be appreciated.  I have a 16 bay triple
>redundant PS case here that I would really like to use with ZFS.
>Unfortunately my CPU is 32 bit, so that may have to change.

You probably want something like this:

http://cooldrives.stores.yahoo.net/8-channel-8-port-sata-pci-card.html

And you want PCI-X; not PCI.  (one 3Gbps SATA port can nearly saturate
PCI)

Casper

On Fri, 21 Jul 2006, Shannon Roddy wrote:
> Hi All,
>
> I have looked on the HCL list for Sol 10 x86 without much luck.  I am
> looking for a 8 or 16 port SATA card for a JBOD Sol 10 x86 ZFS
> installation.  Anyone know of one that is well supported in Sol 10?  I
> am starting to do some testing with an LSI Logic 320-XLP SATA RAID card,
> but so far as I can tell, it does not want to do JBOD.  For several
> reasons, I would rather have ZFS handle the RAID.
>
> Any recommendations would be appreciated.  I have a 16 bay triple
> redundant PS case here that I would really like to use with ZFS.
> Unfortunately my CPU is 32 bit, so that may have to change.
The newer version of the SuperMicro 8-port card works well:

http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AoC-SAT2-MV8.cfm

Al Hopper  Logical Approach Inc, Plano, TX.  al at logical-approach.com
           Voice: 972.379.2133 Fax: 972.379.2134  Timezone: US CDT
OpenSolaris.Org Community Advisory Board (CAB) Member - Apr 2005
                OpenSolaris Governing Board (OGB) Member - Feb 2006