Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
Hi. I install solaris 10 x86 on PowerEdge R510 with PERC H700 without problem. 8HDD configured with RAID 6. Only question is how to monitor this controller? Do you have any tools which allow you to monitor this controller? Get HDD status. Thank you for help. PS. I know this is OpenSolaris not solaris group but maybe I get help here. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
-BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE- Hash: SHA1 On 8/7/2010 4:11 PM, Terry Hull wrote: It is just that lots of the PERC controllers do not do JBOD very well. I've done it several times making a RAID 0 for each drive. Unfortunately, that means the server has lots of RAID hardware that is not utilized very well. Doing that lets you use the cache, which is the only part of the RAID HW that I'd worry about wasting. Also, ZFS loves to see lots of spindles, and Dell boxes tend not to have lots of drive bays in comparison to what you can build at a given price point. I've found the R515 (the R510's cousing with AMD processors) to be very interesting in this regard. It has many more drive bays than most Dell boxes. I've also priced out the IBM x3630 M3, even more drive bays in this one. for about %20 more. Of course then you have warranty / service issues to consider. I don't know what you're needs are, but I found dell's 5yr onsite 10x5 NBD support to be priced very attractively. But I can live with a machine being down till the next day, or through a weekend. -Kyle -- Terry Hull Network Resource Group, Inc. ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss -BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE- Version: GnuPG v2.0.14 (MingW32) iQEcBAEBAgAGBQJMyZFEAAoJEEADRM+bKN5wTr4IAIh1LzIcm346TVcRZdKwkbgW EkFux2ZT8uzk/v1lXqgiDCkO0zQ/Bwpk9SsSa0KOblOxKRWPYQwj2pO30syX/QnR 82aFfhcJaWmf0H3aphoowqTTDhKRefYXgbPINaVafDV8JY8tN9d0+Tcnhv03n3pq 7Eafg+RbjaZPceZxDuNQ0xJFw+cpXvOYSFAcCB+E49actOqDIErf4A2xGL96PK7k POu1bHN5qyIsca6t76nvuR7w8+yq6FfM4HY0KahyPhx/MXjp01N7vFyQKdLF5rGU ByliQedo7r8OsLl6BxeMwv+SBNxab4sjqWpWfTzniLk1Ng6aG3mm5YQ7/iAUZ+0= =FDkN -END PGP SIGNATURE- ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
From: zfs-discuss-boun...@opensolaris.org [mailto:zfs-discuss- boun...@opensolaris.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Nordli I have an R710... Not quite the same, but similar. Thanks Edward. What did you end up using for the L2ARC? The SSDs shown in the online configurator are SLC based. Did you use the Broadcom or the optional Intel NIC? We opted not to use L2ARC in the dell server. Because the Sun server is our primary server, and the Dell is only for backup. That being said, for most purposes I would usually recommend investing in a log device before a cache device, and that's what we're using on the Sun server. But we did some performance benchmarks on the Dell including the SSD before putting it into production. Do you have something against SLC? We got the broadcom based nic. I think it was the default. No thought was put into this decision - If the intel nic has some advantage to offer, you might consider it. In my experience, as long as a nic works, there's very little difference from one to the next. ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
On 08/08/2010, at 07.23, valrh...@gmail.com wrote: 2. I'd also recommend avoiding the PERC cards, in particular since it makes drives attached to it impossible to transport to another system. Instead, I use the SAS 6i/R controller. That's built into the motherboard on the PW T7500, and I got one separately for the PE T410. That works well, and is completely fine with OpenSolaris. I'd recommend those, because then you can be sure to get the cabling from Dell (which in the case of the PowerEdge, was completely nonstandard). And if the card fails, they'll replace it ASAP, which isn't necessarily the case with other vendors' cards. The PERC H200's have full pass-through, completely bypassing the raid controller. http://tinyurl.com/yl6zupj - Lasse ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
From: zfs-discuss-boun...@opensolaris.org [mailto:zfs-discuss- boun...@opensolaris.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Nordli Anyone have any experience with a R510 with the PERC H200/H700 controller with ZFS? My perception is that Dell doesn't play well with OpenSolaris. I have an R710... Not quite the same, but similar. When you say doesn't play nice with opensolaris, you're hitting a grain of truth but blowing it out of proportion. It's true that some stuff might not brainlessly work the way you'd like. And it's true that you'll be lacking some functionality that you'd probably like. But it's easy to quantify and describe, and easy to describe the options of dealing with it, too: #1 Optical drive, by default, in AHCI mode. For some reason, apparently using a chipset that osol can't handle. So put the optical drive into ATA or Legacy mode before booting. Or use an external optical drive for installation. #2 On my R710, the perc driver wasn't included in the sol10 DVD by default, so I had to download a special one from support.dell.com, and hit 5 - insert driver disk or whatever, during sol10 installation. This was not an issue for osol installation. #3 OMSA provides the web-based gui to manage your raid card. Not available in sol10/osol. Instead, find the appropriate MegaCLI for your device ... which is really tough to do. This is needed if you want the ability to replace a failed drive without rebooting. Once you overcome these things, it works great. ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
From: zfs-discuss-boun...@opensolaris.org [mailto:zfs-discuss- boun...@opensolaris.org] On Behalf Of valrh...@gmail.com 2. I'd also recommend avoiding the PERC cards, in particular since it makes drives attached to it impossible to transport to another system. This is not true. You can transport these drives to another system with either a Perc, or any other form of LSI MegaRaid. What's more, I'll advise staying away from generic SATA, because they're impossible to transport to any system which is more advanced than generic SATA. ;-) See? It works two-ways. And the same is true of all the other HBA's out there which have any intelligence in them, too ... RealTek and so forth. It's all not compatible with each other. Realtek drives have to stay with realtek controllers. LSI drives with LSI controllers. Generic SATA with generic controllers. Etc. One advantage of using the Perc, or some other HBA with battery backed write-back cache, is a really big performance benefit for sync writes... But not quite as big a benefit as using the dedicated log device ... But the HBA is far lower cost than the SSD solution, and doesn't take up a drive slot (or two). ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
From: Edward Ned Harvey [mailto:sh...@nedharvey.com] Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2010 8:34 PM boun...@opensolaris.org] On Behalf Of Geoff Nordli Anyone have any experience with a R510 with the PERC H200/H700 controller with ZFS? My perception is that Dell doesn't play well with OpenSolaris. I have an R710... Not quite the same, but similar. When you say doesn't play nice with opensolaris, you're hitting a grain of truth but blowing it out of proportion. It's true that some stuff might not brainlessly work the way you'd like. And it's true that you'll be lacking some functionality that you'd probably like. But it's easy to quantify and describe, and easy to describe the options of dealing with it, too: #1 Optical drive, by default, in AHCI mode. For some reason, apparently using a chipset that osol can't handle. So put the optical drive into ATA or Legacy mode before booting. Or use an external optical drive for installation. #2 On my R710, the perc driver wasn't included in the sol10 DVD by default, so I had to download a special one from support.dell.com, and hit 5 - insert driver disk or whatever, during sol10 installation. This was not an issue for osol installation. #3 OMSA provides the web-based gui to manage your raid card. Not available in sol10/osol. Instead, find the appropriate MegaCLI for your device ... which is really tough to do. This is needed if you want the ability to replace a failed drive without rebooting. Once you overcome these things, it works great. Thanks Edward. What did you end up using for the L2ARC? The SSDs shown in the online configurator are SLC based. Did you use the Broadcom or the optional Intel NIC? Geoff ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
[zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
Anyone have any experience with a R510 with the PERC H200/H700 controller with ZFS? My perception is that Dell doesn't play well with OpenSolaris. Thanks, Geoff ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
-Original Message- From: Brian Hechinger [mailto:wo...@4amlunch.net] Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 8:10 AM To: Geoff Nordli Subject: Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS On Sat, Aug 07, 2010 at 08:00:11AM -0700, Geoff Nordli wrote: Anyone have any experience with a R510 with the PERC H200/H700 controller with ZFS? Not that particular setup, but I do run Solaris on a Precision 690 with PERC 6i controllers. My perception is that Dell doesn't play well with OpenSolaris. What makes you say that? I've run Solaris on quite a few Dell boxes and have never had any issues. -brian -- Hi Brian. I am glad to hear that, because I would prefer to use a dell box. Is there a JBOD mode with the PERC 6i? It is funny how sometimes one forms these views as you gather information. Geoff ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
From: Geoff Nordli geo...@gnaa.net Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 08:39:46 -0700 To: zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org Subject: Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS -Original Message- From: Brian Hechinger [mailto:wo...@4amlunch.net] Sent: Saturday, August 07, 2010 8:10 AM To: Geoff Nordli Subject: Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS On Sat, Aug 07, 2010 at 08:00:11AM -0700, Geoff Nordli wrote: Anyone have any experience with a R510 with the PERC H200/H700 controller with ZFS? Not that particular setup, but I do run Solaris on a Precision 690 with PERC 6i controllers. My perception is that Dell doesn't play well with OpenSolaris. What makes you say that? I've run Solaris on quite a few Dell boxes and have never had any issues. -brian -- Hi Brian. I am glad to hear that, because I would prefer to use a dell box. Is there a JBOD mode with the PERC 6i? It is funny how sometimes one forms these views as you gather information. Geoff It is just that lots of the PERC controllers do not do JBOD very well. I've done it several times making a RAID 0 for each drive. Unfortunately, that means the server has lots of RAID hardware that is not utilized very well. Also, ZFS loves to see lots of spindles, and Dell boxes tend not to have lots of drive bays in comparison to what you can build at a given price point. Of course then you have warranty / service issues to consider. -- Terry Hull Network Resource Group, Inc. ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
From: Geoff Nordli geo...@gnaa.net Date: Sat, 7 Aug 2010 14:11:37 -0700 To: Terry Hull t...@nrg-inc.com, zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org Subject: RE: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS [stuff deleted] Terry, you are right, the part that was really missing with the Dell was the lack of spindles. It seems the R510 can have up to 12 spindles. The online configurator only allows you to select SLC SSDs, which are a lot more expensive than the MLC versions. It would be nice to do MLC since that works fine for L2ARC. I believe they have an onboard SD flash connector too. It would be great to be able to install the base OS onto a flash card and not waste two drives. Are you using the Broadcom or Intel NICs? For sure the benefit of buying name brand is the warranty/service side of things, which is important to me. I don't want to spend any time worrying/fixing boxes. I understand that one. I have been using both Intel and Broadcom NICs successfully. My gut tells me I like the Intel better, but I can't say that is because I have had trouble with the Broadcom. It is just a personal preference that I probably can't justify. -- Terry ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
Re: [zfs-discuss] PowerEdge R510 with PERC H200/H700 with ZFS
I've been running OpenSolaris on my Dell Precision Workstation T7500 for 9 months, and it works great. It's my default desktop operating system, and I've had zero problems with hardware compatibility. I also have installed EON 0.600 on my Dell PowerEdge T410 (not so different from your R510). A few words of caution: 1. Beware of the onboard controllers. The RAID controller on that motherboard only works in Windows; neither Linux nor OpenSolaris can recognize drives attached to it at all. So I was stuck running in ATA mode at the beginning, which is awful in terms of performance. 2. I'd also recommend avoiding the PERC cards, in particular since it makes drives attached to it impossible to transport to another system. Instead, I use the SAS 6i/R controller. That's built into the motherboard on the PW T7500, and I got one separately for the PE T410. That works well, and is completely fine with OpenSolaris. I'd recommend those, because then you can be sure to get the cabling from Dell (which in the case of the PowerEdge, was completely nonstandard). And if the card fails, they'll replace it ASAP, which isn't necessarily the case with other vendors' cards. So aside from the RAID controller and cabling issues on the PE T410, I've had nothing but good experiences in terms of Dell Precision workstations and PowerEdge servers, running OpenSolaris. -- This message posted from opensolaris.org ___ zfs-discuss mailing list zfs-discuss@opensolaris.org http://mail.opensolaris.org/mailman/listinfo/zfs-discuss
