Silicon Image support...

Hi Tom,

I read in the other post, your feedback regarding the "not so optimistic working solution" for Silicon Image Sil3114 in the drivers.

I had a question regarding the a different Silicon Image configuration, the one used in the rackmount Norco DS-1220.

http://www.norcotek.com/DS-1220.php

1. With Unraid, can one use just this Norco rackmount (which has SiI3726 Multipliers inside) with 4 ports outside... and the cables from these ports going into the sata ports of the supported motherboard Intel 915GAGLK or into any of the Promise SATA supported cards by you?  In this configuration, one won't use the included pci-x/pci card with Norco containing Sil3124 raid card, which seems another raid card with different version than Sil3114.

http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=26&ptid=1

http://www.siliconimage.com/products/product.aspx?id=27&ptid=1

The block diagram in the first link shows as if any host(port) should be able to handle this... and it is transparent form the point of view of software/drivers... no need of support of any driver/software to handle this multiplier as it is out the host and handled transparently in hardware... Correct me if I'm wrong?

2. Also what are you thoughts on using Unraid with full configuration of Norco DS-1220, using both rackmount (containing Sil3276 multipliers) with the included pci-x/pci card (having Silicon Image SiI3124 on card)?

Thanks a lot for a great product

bump

Port multiplier support in linux is "evolving" 

Apparently there is support for that particular chip.  If someone wants to try it, we'll work with you to try and get it running.

Ok, I'm trying out my Port Multiplier case (Stardom ST6600 : http://www.stardom.com.tw/sohotank%20st6600.htm ) on this post:

http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=571.msg4362#msg4362

YS

Has anyone used Port Multiplier in Unraid 4.1\4.2?

The last time I tried PM was with unraid 4.0, and it didn't work. I can't mess with PM much, because my unraid is being used in production now, maybe when I start another unraid box next month.

Here's the facts as far as I can gather:

The current version of unRAID, v4.2.1, has the Linux kernel 2.6.22.5.  The first Linux version to have Port Multiplier Support built-in is 2.6.24, currently in RC8, not yet final.  Tom has said elsewhere he was waiting for a final release, for the next versions of unRAID.  So PMP should be here very shortly, I believe, unless Tom intends to stay one stable version behind, in which case, we may have to wait a bit longer.

Two drivers are supported, sata_sil24 and ahci.  Sata_sil24 is used by the SiI3132 chipsets, and ahci is used by any chipsets that fully support AHCI, such as ICH9R or later.  More driver info here, from the guy (Tejun Heo) that's doing it:  http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/msg12471.html.

Two cautions as to stability and performance:  I personally would recommend waiting for the second release of PMP support, let others guinea-pig it.  I've done my share of 'bleeding edge' in the past, and feel 'bled out'.  If rock-solid stability is not as important to you, then go for it.  Also, the disclaimers about being bottlenecked on one bus will apply, similar to the complaints about PCI, except that this one is faster, perhaps double? or triple the speed.  It will be interesting to get good throughput reports, especially for simultaneous access.

Correction:  Linux kernel 2.6.24 is now final.

Note:  If you are unsure as to the drivers your disk controllers use, at a console prompt, type ->  lsmod

Thank you very much for the thorough and well informed post, RobJ. This is definitely the post to read for anyone looking for current Unraid PMP status.

Yes, I agree with you about the stability concerns and precaution. The main reason I could afford to mess with Sata-PM back in 4.0 was because I haven't used Unraid in production back then.

Rep+++

The next unRAID release, 4.3-beta1, is based on linux 2.6.24.3 kernel.  I can also say that port multiplier support works well using SIL3132 based controller.  PM support is going to be ideal for unRAID, especially when Intel releases ICH10 chipset which is supposed to support FIS-based switching.