Received: from localhost (unknown [200.46.204.183]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 955AE64FF05 for ; Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:10:23 -0300 (ADT) Received: from postgresql.org ([200.46.204.86]) by localhost (mx1.hub.org [200.46.204.183]) (amavisd-maia, port 10024) with ESMTP id 99606-03 for ; Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:10:16 -0300 (ADT) X-Greylist: from auto-whitelisted by SQLgrey-1.7.6 Received: from westnet.com (westnet.com [216.187.52.2]) by postgresql.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8432E64FEF9 for ; Sun, 20 Jul 2008 20:10:20 -0300 (ADT) Received: from westnet.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by westnet.com (8.14.0/8.14.0) with ESMTP id m6KNAIpV007949; Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:10:18 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost (gsmith@localhost) by westnet.com (8.14.0/8.13.2/Submit) with ESMTP id m6KNAIuU007946; Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:10:18 -0400 (EDT) X-Authentication-Warning: westnet.com: gsmith owned process doing -bs Date: Sun, 20 Jul 2008 19:10:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Greg Smith X-X-Sender: gsmith@westnet.com To: Jeffrey Baker cc: Pgsql performance Subject: Re: 3ware vs Areca In-Reply-To: Message-ID: References: <581D2333-E731-4843-BC31-39840E272C62@torgo.978.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed X-Virus-Scanned: Maia Mailguard 1.0.1 X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0 tagged_above=0 required=5 tests=none X-Spam-Level: X-Archive-Number: 200807/165 X-Sequence-Number: 30765 On Tue, 15 Jul 2008, Jeffrey Baker wrote: > Debian "etch", which has a 2.6.18 kernel. I have contacted Areca > support (as well as the linux-scsi mailing list) and their responses > are usually either 1) upgrade the driver and/or firmware even though I > have the latest drivers and firmware Well, technically you don't have the latest driver, because that's the one that comes with the latest Linux kernel. I'm guessing you have RHEL5 here from that fact that you're using 2.6.18. I have a CentOS5 system here with an Areca card in it. It installed it initially with the stock 2.6.18 kernel there but it never worked quite right; all sorts of odd panics under heavy load. All my problems went away just by moving to a generic 2.6.22, released some time after the Areca card became of more first-class citizen maintained actively by the kernel developers themselves. > 2) vague statements about the disk being incompatible with the > controller. That sort of situation is unfortunate but I don't feel it's unique to Areca. There's lots of reasons why some manufacturers end up with drives that don't work well with some controllers, and it is hard to assign blame when it happens. There is something to be said for buying more integrated and tested systems; ultimately if you build stuff from parts, you're kind of stuck being the QA and that process presumes that you may discover incompatible combinations and punt them out in place of ones that do. -- * Greg Smith gsmith@gregsmith.com http://www.gregsmith.com Baltimore, MD