[storage-discuss] [zfs-discuss] reboot when copying large amounts of data

[Dave]

Tim wrote:
> 
> 
> On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 2:22 PM, Blake <blake.irvin at gmail.com 
> <mailto:blake.irvin at gmail.com>> wrote:
> 
>     I've managed to get the data transfer to work by rearranging my disks
>     so that all of them sit on the integrated SATA controller.
> 
>     So, I feel pretty certain that this is either an issue with the
>     Supermicro aoc-sat2-mv8 card, or with PCI-X on the motherboard (though
>     I would think that the integrated SATA would also be using the PCI
>     bus?).
> 
>     The motherboard, for those interested, is an HD8ME-2 (not, I now find
>     after buying this box from Silicon Mechanics, a board that's on the
>     Solaris HCL...)
> 
>     <http://www.supermicro.com/Aplus/motherboard/Opteron2000/MCP55/h8dme-2.cfm>
> 
>     So I'm not considering one of LSI's HBA's - what do list members think
>     about this device:
> 
>     <http://www.provantage.com/lsi-logic-lsi00117~7LSIG03X.htm
>     <http://www.provantage.com/lsi-logic-lsi00117%7E7LSIG03X.htm>>
> 
> 
> 
> I believe the MCP55's SATA controllers are actually PCI-E based.

I use Tyan 2927 motherboards. They have on-board nVidia MCP55 chipsets, 
which is the same chipset at the X4500 (IIRC). I wouldn't trust the 
MCP55 chipset in OpenSolaris. I had random disk hangs even while the 
machine was mostly idle.

In Feb 2008 I bought AOC-SAT2-MV8 cards and moved all my drives to these 
add-in cards. I haven't had any issues with drive hanging since. There 
does not seem to be any problems with the SAT2-MV8 under heavy load in 
my servers from what I've seen.

When the SuperMicro AOC-USAS-L8i came out later last year, I started 
using them instead. They work better than the SAT2-MV8s.

This card needs a 3U or bigger case:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USAS-L8i.cfm

This is the low profile card that will fit in a 2U:
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-USASLP-L8i.cfm

They both work in normal PCI-E slots on my Tyan 2927 mobos.

Finding good non-Sun hardware that works very well under OpenSolaris is 
frustrating to say the least. Good luck.

--
Dave