SA3114 SATA Controller

[AlanJarvis]

Hi I bought a cheap PCI SATA controller off ebay

http://www.ebay.in/itm/180691445126...X:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1439.l2649#ht_2216wt_1139

Does anyone know where I get a driver which will work with FreeNAS for this card? Also how do I install the driver? (sorry bit of a Linux newbie)

I found a post on this forum from a while ago which says this card will work but no mention of a driver.

Thanks

Alan

 

[pirateghost]

you shouldnt need a driver. i have used that card before and it should just work.

 

[fizzgig656]

hi, ive just sent one of them back, sorry to say, unless i was unlucky, the card seem to work with freenas fine unless raiding, i set up a 4 disk raid 5, checked and double checked, but freenas would not see the raid5, instead it saw the individual disks, if i rebooted the card said it was still raid 5?. Its ok if you just want the extra sata connectors!
sorry and hope this helps - it may of just been my back luck.

 

[AlanJarvis]

you shouldnt need a driver. i have used that card before and it should just work.

OK thanks I will plug it all up tomorrow and see what happens. I would like to use RAID5 but the instructions that come with t card say it only supports RAID 0 and 1. Not sure if Fizzgig656 was trying hardware RAID with the card or software RAID with FreeNAS

Alan

 

[fizzgig656]

OK thanks I will plug it all up tomorrow and see what happens. I would like to use RAID5 but the instructions that come with t card say it only supports RAID 0 and 1. Not sure if Fizzgig656 was trying hardware RAID with the card or software RAID with FreeNAS

Alan

yep hardware raid5, the instructions do state raid 0 and 1 (although the sellers instructions state Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 0+1, JBOD12), but the bios of the card does give you raid 5 options. be good to see how you get on.

 

[pirateghost]

that card will not do a true hardware raid5. you would be much better off using ZFS as intended with FreeNAS.

cards like that rely on software raid, and linux and BSD OSes will not utilize the software raid.

Just use ZFS, it will be much better in the long run

 

[cyberjock]

Just to add to pirateghost...

If you read the manual it explains pretty clearly why hardware RAID is bad for ZFS and why you shouldn't use it. So any reason you are ignoring the manual?

 

[fizzgig656]

just for clarity, i had planned on not using zfs as i only had 4gb ram installed but wanted raid5 for light home use, hence i bought as cheap card thinking it would provide the raid5. when i tried it and found not to work my hand was forced and after reading how raid-z is better i though id chance running only 4gb ram and use raidz.(hoping to up it if my M/ b can handle it) I sent the card back.

Also the pci will not be as quick as M/B sata or PCI-e sata's, well in my testing....

 

[cyberjock]

Also the pci will not be as quick as M/B sata or PCI-e sata's, well in my testing....

A single fast hard drive can be limited by the PCI bus.

 

[AlanJarvis]

I read the manual last night and it does say "NOTE: instead of mixing ZFS RAID with hardware RAID, it is recommended that you place your hardware RAID controller in JBOD mode and let ZFS handle the RAID". I hope to have time to try it out tonight. The system I'm testing it on only has 2Gb RAM. It this going to be a problem?
Alan

 

[tingo]

A single fast hard drive can be limited by the PCI bus.

In my experience, any PCI-based SATA controllers are limited to SATA 150 Mbps.

 

[JaimieV]

I run 4x1Tb disks with ZFS (striped) in just 1gig RAM, no issues over the last year. It's my backups server, not the one that gets used by multiple clients!

(BTW, since this is a totally different question you should have started a new topic really - more likely to get answers)

 

[cyberjock]

In my experience, any PCI-based SATA controllers are limited to SATA 150 Mbps.

Even then, it doesn't matter if it was SATA 1,000,000. Your PCI bus(all devices combined) is limited to 133MB/sec. So accessing any device won't be any faster than 133MB/sec(of course, minus overhead and any other PCI device communication).