[OpenIndiana-discuss] sata port multiplier?

[Attila Fülöp]

On 05/25/11 06:48 PM, Ray Arachelian wrote:
> On 05/25/2011 12:18 PM, Albert Lee wrote:
>>
>> Only the ahci driver supports port multipliers to my knowledge.
>> There's a generic port multiplier specification so the choice of
>> multiplier should not matter (although mostly Silicon Image chips have
>> been tested).
>>   
> 
> Hmm, too bad.  I don't see the ahci driver loaded via modinfo, just
> pci-ide, and si3124 for the RAID controller.  So I guess that's not
> going to work?

The si3124 should support at least Silicon Image based port multipliers.
Some time ago I got this working with an si3132 and a no name Silicon
Image 1 -> 5 eSATA PM on nv_111.

The problem I encountered was that it only detected one of two identical
(same vendor, same model) disks. Different disks were detected properly
though. Maybe this bug is already fixed. I didn't follow since I switched
to tape based backups.

Since the si3132 is the PCI-e version of the si3124 and both use the same
driver, I would say give it a try. Keep in mind that there a people who
strongly urge not to use PMs if you value your data. I didn't experience
any problems in the relatively short time I used this PM though. You also
should note that a PM introduces a single point of failure and limits the
throughput to a single SATA line.

HTH

Attila

> I suppose I could give up one of the rpool drives and put it in an USB
> enclosure instead.  I guess it'll be an interesting tradeoff.
> 
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