Hi I am currently running a ZFS home server and want to add more disks. However my motherboard only has 4 SATA ports which are all used as follows: Onboard SATA1 : Boot disk Onboard SATA2 : ZFS Disk 1 Onboard SATA3 : ZFS Disk 2 Onboard SATA4 : ZFS Disk 3 I wish to purchase a 4 port SATA PCI controller card (StarTech.com 4 Port PCI SATA uses the Silicom Image SIL3114 Chipset) to accommodate an extra disk in the following configuration: Onboard SATA1 : Boot disk Onboard SATA2 : ZFS Disk 1 Onboard SATA3 : ZFS Disk 2 PCI SATA1 : ZFS Disk 3 PCI SATA2 : ZFS Disk 4 I obviously have to blow my existing zpool, but my question is will I see any performance loss by splitting my disks across different controllers? Or is it better to stick all the 4 disks on the PCI card? Thanks in advance. J -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
Jon Tsu wrote:> Hi > > I am currently running a ZFS home server and want to add more disks. However my motherboard only has 4 SATA ports which are all used as follows: > > Onboard SATA1 : Boot disk > Onboard SATA2 : ZFS Disk 1 > Onboard SATA3 : ZFS Disk 2 > Onboard SATA4 : ZFS Disk 3 > > I wish to purchase a 4 port SATA PCI controller card (StarTech.com 4 Port PCI SATA uses the Silicom Image SIL3114 Chipset) to accommodate an extra disk in the following configuration: >I''ve had no luck getting the SIL3112 Chipset working, although I know some people have it working. Solaris tries to drive it, but always just gets back a ''not ready'' status, IIRC. I tried several different SIL3112 PCI controllers, all with the same result. It may be that it works if integrated onto the motherboard and initialised by the BIOS, but I couldn''t get any add-in PCI cards working. (Yes, I did flash them with the non-RAID BIOS, which you''ll have to do if you get one with the RAID BIOS on it.) Also, it''s a rather old chipset now (one of the earliest SATA interfaces). It''s basically emulating an IDE drive interface as far as the system is concerned, and I guess that it probably doesn''t support some SATA features as a result.> Onboard SATA1 : Boot disk > Onboard SATA2 : ZFS Disk 1 > Onboard SATA3 : ZFS Disk 2 > > PCI SATA1 : ZFS Disk 3 > PCI SATA2 : ZFS Disk 4 > > I obviously have to blow my existing zpool,That depends how your existing pool is configured, which you haven''t said.> but my question is will I see any performance loss by splitting my disks across different controllers?No, but you might see a performance loss using such an old SATA controller (for example, if it doesn''t support queueing, which I don''t know if it does or not).> Or is it better to stick all the 4 disks on the PCI card? >-- Andrew
Jon Tsu wrote:> Hi > > I am currently running a ZFS home server and want to add more disks. However my motherboard only has 4 SATA ports which are all used as follows: > > Onboard SATA1 : Boot disk > Onboard SATA2 : ZFS Disk 1 > Onboard SATA3 : ZFS Disk 2 > Onboard SATA4 : ZFS Disk 3 > > I wish to purchase a 4 port SATA PCI controller card (StarTech.com 4 Port PCI SATA uses the Silicom Image SIL3114 Chipset) to accommodate an extra disk in the following configuration:Avoid the SiL3112 and SiL3114 chipsets (I did throw mine SiL3114 based PCI card away). see: http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/message.jspa?messageID=286090 http://www.opensolaris.org/jive/thread.jspa?threadID=37556 v.
Thanks for the replies and info the on the SIL3114 Chipset. Is there a supported chipset, for ZFS use, that works? I too have seen reports of this chipset working but yes they are quite old reports. Would be good if someone has any recommendations. Regarding my setup, its a RAIDZ1 zpool with 3 x 500GB disks. I wish to add another 500GB disk but like I said I have run out of SATA ports on my motherboard. I don''t really want to get a new motherboard with more onboard SATA ports if I can help it. Thanks. J -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
Jon Tsu wrote:> Thanks for the replies and info the on the SIL3114 Chipset. Is there a supported chipset, for ZFS use, that works? I too have seen reports of this chipset working but yes they are quite old reports. Would be good if someone has any recommendations. > > Regarding my setup, its a RAIDZ1 zpool with 3 x 500GB disks. I wish to add another 500GB disk but like I said I have run out of SATA ports on my motherboard. I don''t really want to get a new motherboard with more onboard SATA ports if I can help it. > >I haven''t seen any other cheap supported PCI SATA controllers. You might find it''s cheaper to buy a couple of 1.5TB SATA disks to use as a mirror on your existing SATA ports than it is to buy a supported multi-port PCI SATA card. -- Andrew
Looking at the HCL, this looks promising: SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8 (based on Marvell MV88SX6081). But its about 80GBP which is the same as a 1T disk at the moment. Not sure if this card is suitable though. Thanks. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
What card did you use instead of the SiL3114 card? Thanks. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org
That card does work well, and uses the same chipset as the Thumper. I''ve found that there are some issues with hot swap, but other than that it works fine. I''ve got one in a live ZFS server right now. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org