Hi,

I'm toying with the idea of using ZFS on an A1000 that's attached to one
of my Solaris boxes. Now I understand that ZFS can do its own
redundancy, so I have a couple of options:

- let the A1000 do the RAID thing, and present a single LUN to ZFS, or
- configure the A1000 to look like a JBOD array (one LUN per disk)

If it makes any difference, the array is going to hold a Postgres database.

What's the best option?

Cheers
- Ian

--
Ian Chard, Unix & Network Administrator | E: ian.chard@sers.ox.ac.uk
Systems and Electronic Resources Service | T: 80587 / (01865) 280587
Oxford University Library Services | F: (01865) 242287

Ian Chard wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I'm toying with the idea of using ZFS on an A1000 that's attached to one
> of my Solaris boxes. Now I understand that ZFS can do its own
> redundancy, so I have a couple of options:
>
> - let the A1000 do the RAID thing, and present a single LUN to ZFS, or
> - configure the A1000 to look like a JBOD array (one LUN per disk)

Are you aware that A1000s are not supported in Solaris 10 (unless
something has changed recently)?

That being said, what `not supported' means is that the whole interface
to the RAID controller on the A1000 is gone - if you have volumes set
up they will still work. So I would set it up to be a JBOD and use it
that way, for sure. Better yet, use a D1000.

--tim

On 21/08/06 19:04, tfb wrote:
> Ian Chard wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm toying with the idea of using ZFS on an A1000 that's attached to one
>> of my Solaris boxes. Now I understand that ZFS can do its own
>> redundancy, so I have a couple of options:
>>
>> - let the A1000 do the RAID thing, and present a single LUN to ZFS, or
>> - configure the A1000 to look like a JBOD array (one LUN per disk)
>
> Are you aware that A1000s are not supported in Solaris 10 (unless
> something has changed recently)?

Bugger, I never actually checked, but you're right, it's in the EOF list.

> That being said, what `not supported' means is that the whole interface
> to the RAID controller on the A1000 is gone - if you have volumes set
> up they will still work. So I would set it up to be a JBOD and use it
> that way, for sure. Better yet, use a D1000.

Thanks for that -- it never would have occurred to me that A1000 support
has gone away, but I guess it is a pretty old bit of kit.

Cheers
- Ian

--
Ian Chard, Unix & Network Administrator | E: ian.chard@sers.ox.ac.uk
Systems and Electronic Resources Service | T: 80587 / (01865) 280587
Oxford University Library Services | F: (01865) 242287

On 21/08/06 19:04, tfb wrote:
> Ian Chard wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm toying with the idea of using ZFS on an A1000 that's attached to one
>> of my Solaris boxes. Now I understand that ZFS can do its own
>> redundancy, so I have a couple of options:
>>
>> - let the A1000 do the RAID thing, and present a single LUN to ZFS, or
>> - configure the A1000 to look like a JBOD array (one LUN per disk)
>
> Are you aware that A1000s are not supported in Solaris 10 (unless
> something has changed recently)?

A similar question, then: the machine in question is a V440 with a
hardware RAID controller (using raidctl). Would I be better off
mirroring the disks using that controller, or letting ZFS do it?

- Ian

--
Ian Chard, Unix & Network Administrator | E: ian.chard@sers.ox.ac.uk
Systems and Electronic Resources Service | T: 80587 / (01865) 280587
Oxford University Library Services | F: (01865) 242287