Hey all, Has anyone else noticed Norco''s recently-announced DS-520 and thought ZFS-ish thoughts? It''s a five-SATA, Celeron-based desktop NAS that ships without an OS. http://www.norcotek.com/item_detail.php?categoryid=8&modelno=ds-520 What practical impact is a 32-bit processor going to have on a ZFS system? (I know this relies on speculation, but) Might anyone know anything about Norco''s usual chipsets to guess about OpenSolaris compatibility? adam
Hello Adam,
Tuesday, October 9, 2007, 10:15:13 AM, you wrote:
AL> Hey all,
AL> Has anyone else noticed Norco''s recently-announced DS-520 and
thought
AL> ZFS-ish thoughts? It''s a five-SATA, Celeron-based desktop NAS
that ships
AL> without an OS.
AL> http://www.norcotek.com/item_detail.php?categoryid=8&modelno=ds-520
AL> What practical impact is a 32-bit processor going to have on a ZFS
AL> system? (I know this relies on speculation, but) Might anyone know
AL> anything about Norco''s usual chipsets to guess about OpenSolaris
AL> compatibility?
Because it offers upto 1GB of memory, 32bit shouldn''t be an issue.
--
Best regards,
Robert Milkowski mailto:rmilkowski at task.gda.pl
http://milek.blogspot.com
Hello, Robert, Robert Milkowski wrote:> Because it offers upto 1GB of memory, 32bit shouldn''t be an issue.Sorry, could someone expand on this? The only received opinion I''ve seen on 32-bit is from the ZFS best practice wiki, which simply says "Run ZFS on a system that runs a 64-bit kernel." I have little idea where this comes from, and had no idea that it would rely on memory concerns. thanks, adam
Adam Lindsay wrote:> Hello, Robert, > > Robert Milkowski wrote: > >> Because it offers upto 1GB of memory, 32bit shouldn''t be an issue. > > Sorry, could someone expand on this? > The only received opinion I''ve seen on 32-bit is from the ZFS best > practice wiki, which simply says "Run ZFS on a system that runs a 64-bit > kernel." I have little idea where this comes from, and had no idea that > it would rely on memory concerns.Put simply, ZFS eats address space for breakfast :) So if you have a 64bit cpu, with its larger address space, that''s a better option than 32bit. If you don''t have a 64bit cpu, add more ram(tm). James C. McPherson -- Senior Kernel Software Engineer, Solaris Sun Microsystems
>If you don''t have a 64bit cpu, add more ram(tm).Actually, no; if you have a 32 bit CPU, you must not add too much RAM or the kernel will run out of space to put things. Casper
Casper.Dik at Sun.COM wrote:>> If you don''t have a 64bit cpu, add more ram(tm). > > > Actually, no; if you have a 32 bit CPU, you must not add too much > RAM or the kernel will run out of space to put things.Hrm. Do you have a working definition of "too much"? adam
>Casper.Dik at Sun.COM wrote: >>> If you don''t have a 64bit cpu, add more ram(tm). >> >> >> Actually, no; if you have a 32 bit CPU, you must not add too much >> RAM or the kernel will run out of space to put things. > >Hrm. Do you have a working definition of "too much"?I think it would be something like "more that can fit in the kernel''s address segment"; that is adjustable but it is generally set at 1GB. Casper
Norco usually uses Silicon Image based SATA controllers. The OpenSolaris driver for this has caused me enough headaches for me to replace it with a Marvell based board. I would also imagine that they use a 5 to 1 SATA multiplexer, which is not supported by any OpenSolaris driver that I''ve tested. Gary This message posted from opensolaris.org
Gary Gendel wrote:> Norco usually uses Silicon Image based SATA controllers.Ah, yes, I remember hearing SI SATA multiplexer horror stories when I was researching storage possibilities. However, I just heard back from Norco:> Thank you for interest in Norco products. > Most of part uses by DS -520 are using chipset found on common boards. > For example we use marvell 88sx6081 as SATA controller. > The system should be function fine with OpenSolaris. > Please feel free to contact us for further more questions.That''s the Thumper''s controller chipset, right? Sounds like very good news to me. adam
On Tue, 2007-10-09 at 23:36 +0100, Adam Lindsay wrote:> Gary Gendel wrote: > > Norco usually uses Silicon Image based SATA controllers. > > Ah, yes, I remember hearing SI SATA multiplexer horror stories when I > was researching storage possibilities. > > However, I just heard back from Norco: > > > Thank you for interest in Norco products. > > Most of part uses by DS -520 are using chipset found on common boards. > > For example we use marvell 88sx6081 as SATA controller. > > The system should be function fine with OpenSolaris. > > Please feel free to contact us for further more questions. > > That''s the Thumper''s controller chipset, right? Sounds like very good > news to me. >Yes, it is. 0b:01.0 SCSI storage controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. MV88SX6081 8-port SATA II PCI-X Controller (rev 09)