On Wed, Jan 07, 2004 at 01:15:31AM +0100, Rogier Krieger wrote:
> Hi there Manuel,
> 
> Previous correspondence from Manuel Bouyer (00:39 6-1-2004 +0100):
> >The promise is software RAID, not hardware. I think the adaptec
> >is too. If you're going to use software RAID, any SATA adapter
> >will do it.
> 
> If I remember correctly, I heard this was the reason why there was no
> support for some older Promise RAID cards.

Hum these adapters are supported as regular IDE controllers, regardless
if they're RAID or not. What's not (or only partially) is using their
RAID BIOS with NetBSD. But once the kernel is loaded you can use a raidframe
device on the drives.

> Apparently, Adaptec now
> also brings out such devices. Does it also mean the card is
> unsupported under NetBSD?

Don't some of them use a promise or HPT controller ?

> In that case, it would not only be obsolete
> but also unfunctional.
> 
> Regarding that second remark: I suppose you mean a regular set of
> drives on a (non-RAID) S-ATA controller that are turned into a
> RAIDframe volume under NetBSD?

Yes

> 
> Could such drives be moved to a hardware solution (such as a 3ware
> card) without having to reinstall the system and/or partitions?

Hum, probably not. We don't know the layout of blocks used by 3ware,
nor the info they may want to put on the drives (if any).

> That
> is, if you dedicate the entire drive to a RAID volume. In that case,
> switching is relatively unintrusive (I heard obtaining a 3ware 8000-6
> would take several weeks which would be wasted time as the rest of
> the system is already here).

But I fear you can't recover data after moving the drives.

--
Manuel Bouyer, LIP6, Universite Paris VI.           Manuel.Bouyer@lip6.fr
     NetBSD: 24 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--