ZFS SAS/SATA controller recommendations

Posted by ewwhite on Server Fault See other posts from Server Fault or by ewwhite
Published on 2009-11-12T14:32:01Z Indexed on 2010/06/12 19:23 UTC
Read the original article Hit count: 318

Filed under:

opensolaris

|

zfs

|

proliant

I've been working with OpenSolaris and ZFS for 6 months, primarily on a Sun Fire x4540 and standard Dell and HP hardware. One downside to standard Perc and HP Smart Array controllers is that they do not have a true "passthrough" JBOD mode to present individual disks to ZFS.

One can configure multiple RAID 0 arrays and get them working in ZFS, but it impacts hotswap capabilities (thus requiring a reboot upon disk failure/replacement). I'm curious as to what SAS/SATA controllers are recommended for home-brewed ZFS JBODs. In addition, how does battery-backed write cache (BBWC) play into the solution?

© Server Fault or respective owner

Related posts about opensolaris

Disable STP in Opensolaris bridge

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Hello, how can i completely disable STP in a Opensolaris bridge. This bridge is connected to a Cisco Access Port and will disable the uplink port when the first BPDU arrives. bridged[3651]: [ID 581644 daemon.warning] unexpected BPDU on rge1 from 0:xx:xx:xx:xx:b; forwarding disabled I already… >>> More
OS choice between: Debian, gNewSense, and OpenSolaris

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I am planning to migrate from Mac OS X and Windows to either a Unix or Linux distribution, i.e. I am a Linux/Unix beginner. Right now the following caught my interest: Debian: Well established with huge repository of 20000+ apps. gNewSence: "Totally free" version of Ubuntu, so it should be more… >>> More
How to list my harddrives in OpenSolaris?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a machine with two harddrives. I have installed OpenSolaris on one of them and now I want to add the other one as a mirror-drive in my zpool. But to do that I have to know the name of my drive, something like c7d0s0. Using the command zpool status can I see the harddrives already in use in… >>> More
How to navigate in OpenSolaris without a mouse?

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
I have a machine with OpenSolaris. When I log in it seams like I have to use a mouse to start an xterm console. Is there any keyboard-shortcuts that I can use instead of using the mouse? I.e. I can't even access the menu without using my mouse. >>> More
OpenSolaris: unable to contact repository, connected to internet via proxy

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
Opensolaris b134: unable to set packages catalog this system is connected to internet via proxy, while this works on browser, how to make console/terminal aware? user1@opensolaris134:~# pkg set-authority -O http://pkg.opensolaris.org/dev opensolaris.org pkg set-publisher: Could not refresh the catalog… >>> More

Related posts about zfs

ZFS replication between 2 ZFS file systems

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I initially replicated tank/storage1 -- usb1/storage1-slave (depicted below), and then (deliberately) destroyed the snapshot I replicated from. By doing this, did I lose the ability to incrementally (zfs send -i) replicate between these 2 file systems? What's the best way to approach SYNC'ing these… >>> More
Troubleshoot broken ZFS

as seen on Ask Ubuntu - Search for 'Ask Ubuntu'
I have one zpool called tank in RaidZ1 with 5x1TB SATA HDDs. I'm using Ubuntu Server 11.10 Oneric, kernel 3.0.0-15-server. Installed ZFS from ppa also I'm using zfs-auto-snapshot. The ZFS file system when zfs module loaded to the kernel hangs my computer. Before it I created few new file systems: zfs… >>> More
Oracle Solaris 11 ZFS Lab for Openworld 2012

as seen on Oracle Blogs - Search for 'Oracle Blogs'
Preface This is the content from the Oracle Openworld 2012 ZFS lab. It was well attended - the feedback was that it was a little short - thats probably because in writing it I bacame very time-concious after the ASM/ACFS on Solaris extravaganza I ran last year which was almost too long for mortal… >>> More
zfs setup question

as seen on Super User - Search for 'Super User'
Currently I have a linux storage box and server with 4x750gb harddrives in raid-5 with ext3. I have ordered 3x1.5tb disks to upgrade this. Here is my planned upgrade: Backup: Format the 1.5 tb disks Copy all data from the raid-5 disks to the 1.5tb disks Destroy the raid-5 array. New setup: Create… >>> More
I need advice about iscsi + zfs(or ntfs) + windows 2008 clustering

as seen on Server Fault - Search for 'Server Fault'
I want to setup a storage farm with iSCSI. I have 2 cluster node machine, 1 iscsi target machine that has 8TB installed as RAID 10. The capacity is now 8TB, but I'll upgrade the capacity in future. Let's say, I installed clusters as file server, and I connected these servers to iscsi target, then… >>> More