Re: Functional RAID controller?

Rainer Duffner wrote:
> Barrett Lyon wrote:
>> I've been using HEAD with 3ware adapters and all of my test machines 
>> are completely non-functional.  I had my team working directly with 
>> 3ware for two weeks and they offered a tip here and there.   
>> Ultimately we ended up with a non-functioning systems and a good idea 
>> what's wrong with the twa driver.
>>
>> I offered to help fund and provide hardware for a development effort 
>> to update their driver to support HEAD but they refused to help.  I am 
>> worried about 3ware's commitment to the future of FreeBSD and the twa 
>> driver at this point, 3ware is not the least bit concerned (even with 
>> a large customer):
>>
>>> From:       xxx_at_amcc.com
>>> Subject:     RE: 3ware driver issues-Machine to be dropped at 3ware
>>> Date:     May 7, 2007 5:14:04 PM PDT
>>>
>>> Good Afternoon.  Sorry for the delay in getting back to everyone.   We
>>> have been discussing this internally, and ultimately BSD 7 is
>>> unreleased, unstable OS at this time.
>>>
>>> I am sorry, but this is not something we can put resources in at this
>>> time and if you bring a systems here, it could not be worked on right
>>> away either.  It would be weeks/months before we can work on this...
>>
>> I would like to find a SATA RAID controller that plays nice by a 
>> company that is FreeBSD friendly and progressively working on their 
>> drivers.  Does anyone have any suggestions other than to not use the 
>> 7.0 branch?
> 
> 
> I don't think there are a lot of companies who do care about FreeBSD7 
> (or FreeBSD at all).

That was true in the past, but is much less true now.  Areca, HighPoint,
and Adaptec are showing a high amount of interesting FreeBSD these days.

> For many, it's rather a nuisance (from my perspective). They only 
> support it, because a significant portion of their sales depends on it.
> Can anybody make a statement about the status of the Areca driver?

It works very well.

> Because that's the only other non-SCSI controller I know that is worth 
> having.

See my previous email.  I would recommend each of those companies; some
have strengths in certain attributes over others, but they all tend to
work well with FreeBSD.

Scott