 Home Members Only Membership Donations Reviews Store Mail List Legal  |
||
April 13, 2007
RAID 5 SATA Port Multiplier Host Adapter
A Review of the HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 External 4 Port PCIe SATA II RAID Controller
By Arthur Whalem
HighPoint Technologies Inc. is shipping the RocketRAID 2314 external four lane PCI-Express SATA II RAID Controller ($200). The four ports provided by the RocketRAID 2314 SATA host adapter can support external SATA direct connect or SATA port multiplier enclosures. Apple Mac Pro users can utilize Disk Utility to create striped RAID sets or utilize the HighPoint web based RAID management software to create RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD configurations with the RocketRAID 2314. The purpose of this review is to determine how the HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 will perform with an Apple Mac Pro.
System Requirements
Requires an empty PCI Express slot.
Supports Mac OS X 10.4.8 or higher, Windows, Linux and FreeBSD.
Supports up to 20 external SATA hard drives.
PCI Express X4, compatible with X8 and X16 Interface.
Supports RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD.
SMTP support for email notification.
What's Included?
The HighPoint Technologies RocketRAID 2314 external four port PCI-Express SATA II RAID controller includes a PCIe SATA host adapter, four 78" eSATA data cables and a CD with software drivers and documentation.
InstallPCI Express also known as PCIe, communicates using 250MB per second data lanes. PCI Express bandwidth is determined by the number of data lanes that can be supported. One lane, four lanes, eight lanes, or 16 lanes are some of the typical PCIe options available. The RocketRAID 2314 is a four lane (4x) PCIe SATA host adapter that also functions well in an eight lane or a sixteen lane slot.
During this review the HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 was mounted in slot 4 of the Apple Mac Pro 2.66 GHz model. Mac Pro users can view how the PCIe slots are configured by launching the Apple "Expansion Slot Utility" application. It can be found within Mac OS X at Macintosh HD: System: Library: CoreServices: Expansion Slot Utility. This application will usually automatically launch when it detects that a card has been installed in a slot with fewer lanes than the hardware is capable of utilizing.
The Mac Pro used in this review has PCI-Express Profile option #2 selected which provides slots 4 and 3 with four lane slots. The image below displays how the Expansion Slot Utility application looks in this configuration. The RocketRAID 2314 is identified as a x4 "unknown SCSI Bus Controller Card".
After the RocketRAID 2314 is installed, Macintosh users will need to download the latest driver available at the HighPoint web site. The RocketRAID 2314 Mac OS X driver is installed by launching the RR231x_0x.mpkg application. This will install the proper universal drivers for the Mac Pro to communicate with the RocketRAID 2314. AMUG utilized HighPoint Mac driver version 2.11 for this review.
Once the RocketRAID 2314 driver is installed and the computer has restarted Mac Pro users can examine the Mac OS X system profiler data for the PCIe card. As shown below, the RocketRAID 2314 shows up as a "SCSI Bus Controller".
Web Interface
To access the HighPoint web based RAID management software the user will need to navigate to https://localhost:7402/ using a web browser. The user name is RAID and the default password is hpt.
While the user name cannot be modified the password can be changed using the "Setting" menu. Macintosh users may also want to disable the alarm. The alarm will go off any time that the user attempts to hot swap hard drives without using the web manager. The "Setting" menu also allows the web manager port to be altered and can be configured to send email reports to users about the status of the RAID volume.
FeaturesThe HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 utilizes the Marvell 88SX7042 PCIe to Serial ATA controller chip. It provides a dedicated channel for each SATA port and is compliant with both SATA 1.0 and SATA II hard drives. It also supports Native Command Queuing (NCQ) and Spread Spectrum Clocking (SSC). The Marvell 88SX7042 controller chip supports both SATA PM and direct connect SATA connections. The FIS-based port multiplier aware hardware provided with the RocketRAID 2314 allows it to support up to twenty hard drives when four 5-bay SATA PM enclosures are connected. HighPoint recently released the RocketRAID 2314 Mac driver version 2.11 that provides twenty drive support, RAID 50 and enhanced RAID 5 performance with configurations of up to twelve hard drives.
The HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 is the first Macintosh SATA PM host adapter that AMUG has reviewed that supports RAID 5. It also supports deep sleep, bad sector repair, automatic rebuilding of a degraded RAID set, hard disk health monitoring, staggered drive spin up, email notification of errors or failures and reports hard drive SMART data through the HighPoint web management application. However, it does not share SMART data with Mac OS X. As such, users will NOT be able to view the SMART data of hard drives connected to the RR2314 via Disk Utility or with Hardware Monitor. If you are interested in more details about how the HighPoint web manager works with the Macintosh, the users guide is available in PDF format on-line.The RocketRAID 2314 PCI-Express bus interface allows it to easily be installed in an Apple Mac Pro. The HighPoint web based RAID management tool is utilized to establish RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD hard disk configurations. In addition, the RocketRAID 2314 can be used with Disk Utility to setup individual hard drives or Mac OS X supported software RAID configurations.
No Boot Capability
The HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 does not provide boot capability. Users that are looking for boot capability built into a high powered RAID controller should read the AMUG Areca ARC-1221x review. The Mac Pro bootable Areca ARC-1221x controller supports RAID levels 0, 1, 3, 5, 6, 10 or JBOD for maximum configuration flexibility. The fact that all of these configurations are bootable on a Mac Pro with the ARC1221EF firmware installed is a very cool feature.
No Traditional Mac Hot Swap Capability
Most SATA host adapters built for the Macintosh support hot swap. Hard drives can be dismounted and then ejected from the SATA enclosure. Once a new hard drive is inserted it automatically mounts on the desktop or prompts the finder to ask the user to initialize the hard drive if it is not yet properly formatted.
The HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 driver is not designed to follow traditional hot swap Macintosh design guidelines. Instead, the HighPoint web based RAID management application is used to dismount hard drives while the computer is turned on. RR2314 users dismount the hard drives with Mac OS X and then push the "Unplug" command in the web management device window. When the user wants to mount a new hard drive, it is inserted and the web interface is used to rescan the devices. This usually results in the mounting of the hard drive. While this system is awkward compared to the traditional Macintosh method for hot swap, it works. The other option is simply to shutdown, make the hard drive changes and restart.
Energy Usage
According to the Kill-a-Watt electricity usage monitor, the HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 requires approximately 2.5 watts to operate while idle and installed in the Mac Pro 2.66 GHz model. This was determined by measuring the energy usage with and without the card installed while the computer was idle for at least 10 minutes. The difference between the two readings is 2.5 watts.
Additional RAID Types
The HighPoint web based RAID management software provides extended RAID functions that Macintosh users may not be familiar with. These RAID types include:
RAID 5 - stripes data at the block level across several hard drives while distributing parity. If a single hard drive fails, a RAID 5 setup can usually recover using the rebuild features of the RocketRAID 2314. If more than one drive fails the data on the RAID will be lost. This system provides redundancy with the least amount of hard drives. Backing up important data is still necessary with RAID 5, but this system provides some crash protection while a striped RAID set provides none.
RAID 1/0 - creates a striped RAID set with half of the hard drives and a mirror (RAID1) is created with the rest of the drives. This setup provides a duplicate of the striped RAID set. This configuration can still operate should a hard drive failure occur. Unmounting a failed hard drive and inserting another hard disk of the same capacity or larger will allow users to rebuild the RAID 1/0 disk array. Any single disk can fail and no data will be lost as long as the mirror of that disk is functional. Backup of critical files is still prudent but the redundancy of a RAID 1/0 disk array is very good.
Striped RAID Set Options
The RocketRAID 2314 provides three different methods for configuring striped RAID sets. The method chosen will usually be based on the type of hard drive configuration desired. These three methods include:
1. Legacy Disks/Disk Utility - Disk Utility is used for the hard drive configuration. This also works with a RAID created by another SATA controller being used with the RocketRAID 2314. With this method, Disk Utility is used for all hard drive formatting and RAID creation. The HighPoint web manager is not used. While using the RocketRAID 2314 without using the HighPoint web management software is not an advertised feature, it can provide very good performance with a striped RAID set. However, this method cannot support RAID 5 or 50.
2. Web Manager initialized & Configured - With this method the HighPoint web manager is used to initialize all of the hard drives to the HighPoint format. The web manager is also used to configure the hard drives as JBOD, RAID 0, 1, 5, 10 or 50 formats. After a hard drive is initialized with the HighPoint format, it cannot be seen in the Disk Utility window unless it has been configured as a JBOD or a RAID first. Thus, initializing hard drives with the HighPoint web manager reduces the amount of interaction Disk utility can have with RR 2314 attached hard drives. To regain use of the hard drives with Disk Utility, the drives need to be initialized internally with the Mac Pro, with another host adapter or I have found using the USB port with the Addonics USB 2.0 to eSATA adapter for Macintosh and Windows (AAU2ESA) also works well for this purpose.
3. Web Manager JBOD initialized & Disk Utility Configured - Using this method the hard drives are initialized with the HighPoint web manager and then each hard drive is individually configured using the HighPoint JBOD format. Disk Utility is used to configure the hard drives as a striped RAID set or in a mirror configuration.
Performance - RAID 0The RocketRAID 2314 was tested in slot 4 of a Mac Pro 2.66 GHz running Mac OS X 10.4.10. The HighPoint web manager version 1.6.1 was installed. Several Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drives were mounted to create various RAID configurations. DiskTester 2.0 10GB read and write tests were performed using a run area test so that this article could display how the RAID performed. DiskTester is a Terminal application that measures the combined performance of a volume and the Mac OS X operating system. Using the command: ./disktester run-area-test --chunk-size 128M --test-size 10G --delta-percent 10 DriveName, puts DiskTester to work testing how the RAID will perform when empty, 10% full, 20% full and so on. The table below displays the performance provided when using one to four SATA PM enclosures with five to twenty hard drives.
RocketRAID 2314 SATA Port Multiplier Striped RAID Set Comparison
 Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type |
1 SATA PM
|
2 SATA PM
|
3 SATA PM
|
4 SATA PM
|
| Drives Used |
5 Hard Drives
|
10 Hard Drives
|
15 Hard Drives
|
20 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
224 - 242
|
436 - 441
|
572 - 614
|
622 - 682
|
| 10% |
224 - 242
|
431 - 445
|
572 - 612
|
622 - 703
|
| 20% |
224 - 243
|
430 - 444
|
574 - 640
|
627 - 706
|
| 30% |
224 - 242
|
437 - 450
|
569 - 616
|
622 - 708
|
| 40% |
221 - 243
|
435 - 448
|
565 - 631
|
627 - 704
|
| 50% |
224 - 242
|
433 - 449
|
569 - 624
|
622 - 715
|
| 60% |
224 - 244
|
434 - 453
|
573 - 649
|
623 - 724
|
| 70% |
223 - 245
|
434 - 465
|
569 - 651
|
619 - 704
|
| 80% |
223 - 245
|
424 - 466
|
572 - 657
|
627 - 722
|
| 90% |
222 - 227
|
435 - 450
|
568 - 647
|
618 - 707
|
| 100% |
189 - 189
|
366 - 375
|
505 - 532
|
626 - 725
|
| Average |
220 - 237
|
427 - 444
|
564 - 625
|
623 - 709
|
| MSRP |
$200
|
$200
|
$200
|
$200
|
| Configuration |
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
RAID 0
|
| Volume Size |
1.45TB
|
2.91TB
|
4.36TB
|
5.45TB
|
The table above demonstrates that the HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 controller performs very well with up to twenty hard drives and multiple SATA PM enclosures. The new RocketRAID 231x version 2.11 Mac driver provides enhanced performance and works well with up to twenty hard drives configured as a striped RAID set.
RAID 5The next table displays the performance of the RocketRAID 2314 controller utilizing a RAID 5 configuration with SATA PM enclosures. The same Seagate 320GB model 7200.10 hard drives used in the striped RAID test above were reformatted to create a RAID 5 configuration using the HighPoint web manager. RAID 5 configurations with 5, 10, 15 and 16 hard drives are included in the results.
RocketRAID 2314 SATA Port Multiplier RAID 5 Performance
|
Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type |
1 SATA PM
|
2 SATA PM
|
3 SATA PM
|
4 SATA PM
|
| Drives Used |
5 Hard Drives
|
10 Hard Drives
|
15 Hard Drives
|
16 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
171 - 166
|
377 - 396
|
536 - 535
|
625 - 604
|
| 10% |
173 - 166
|
374 - 393
|
538 - 555
|
622 - 575
|
| 20% |
173 - 166
|
390 - 391
|
536 - 555
|
636 - 590
|
| 30% |
174 - 165
|
379 - 398
|
537 - 555
|
648 - 563
|
| 40% |
174 - 166
|
382 - 398
|
540 - 554
|
648 - 588
|
| 50% |
173 - 166
|
388 - 396
|
528 - 557
|
631 - 594
|
| 60% |
174 - 167
|
390 - 400
|
528 - 561
|
623 - 614
|
| 70% |
172 - 168
|
387 - 402
|
538 - 560
|
584 - 616
|
| 80% |
174 - 168
|
371 - 404
|
531 - 565
|
627 - 616
|
| 90% |
171 - 168
|
353 - 397
|
538 - 562
|
580 - 597
|
| 100% |
148 - 150
|
319 - 327
|
483 - 505
|
490 - 520
|
| Average |
171 - 165
|
374 - 391
|
530 - 551
|
610 - 589
|
| MSRP |
$200
|
$200
|
$200
|
$200
|
| Volume Size |
1.16TB
|
2.62TB
|
4.07TB
|
4.36TB
|
The HighPoint web manager allows the user to enable or disable NCQ. During these RAID 5 performance tests, it was discovered that disabling NCQ provided a 3-4% write performance gain while using the Seagate 320GB hard drives. As a result, NCQ was disabled for these RAID 5 performance tests. This may or may not be the case with your particular RAID 5 setup. However, it may be worth testing both methods when configuring a RAID 5 volume.
RAID 5 utilizes the space of one disk drive for storing parity data. The parity data can be utilized to rebuild the RAID 5 should a single hard disk fail. If users compare the striped RAID set performance data against the RAID 5 data they will notice that RAID 5 is slightly slower with the same number of hard disks. RAID 5 adds some recovery protection to the disk array while RAID 0 provides zero protection. The price for redundancy is usually a little slower performance.
RAID 10The HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 controller also supports RAID 10. This redundant RAID format creates a mirror of each hard drive for recovery purposes. The RAID 10 volume size is one half of the total disk space as a complete mirror is created with half of the hard drives used in the disk array. The traditional RAID 10 configuration requires an even number of hard disks. RAID 10 configurations with 10, 12 and 16 hard drives were compared against the HighPoint RocketRAID 2322 with eight hard drives in the results below.
RocketRAID 2314 SATA Port Multiplier RAID 10 Performance
|
Mac Pro 2.66 |
||||
| Enclosure Type |
2 SATA PM
|
3 SATA PM
|
4 SATA PM
|
|
| Drives Used |
10 Hard Drives
|
12 Hard Drives
|
16 Hard Drives
|
8 Hard Drives
|
| Area Full |
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
Write - Read
|
| empty |
210 - 354
|
278 - 431
|
314 - 575
|
288 - 296
|
| 10% |
210 - 355
|
278 - 433
|
312 - 575
|
293 - 296
|
| 20% |
210 - 352
|
275 - 418
|
315 - 556
|
285 - 290
|
| 30% |
209 - 346
|
280 - 406
|
313 - 543
|
276 - 279
|
| 40% |
210 - 331
|
280 - 395
|
315 - 529
|
266 - 267
|
| 50% |
210 - 320
|
279 - 381
|
311 - 508
|
253 - 256
|
| 60% |
206 - 295
|
279 - 358
|
314 - 478
|
239 - 242
|
| 70% |
210 - 281
|
280 - 332
|
313 - 438
|
222 - 225
|
| 80% |
210 - 257
|
275 - 314
|
315 - 417
|
206 - 207
|
| 90% |
210 - 227
|
259 - 273
|
313 - 359
|
181 - 183
|
| 100% |
179 - 185
|
210 - 222
|
288 - 299
|
147 - 149
|
| Average |
207 - 300
|
270 - 360
|
311 - 480
|
241 - 244
|
| MSRP |
$200
|
$200
|
$200
|
$200
|
| Volume Size |
1.45TB
|
1.75TB
|
2.33TB
|
1.16TB
|
The HighPoint web manager provides an easy way to setup a RAID 10 on a Macintosh. SoftRAID 3.6 does not support RAID 10 and I have been unable to get Disk Utility to create a complex RAID 10 configuration. I can get Disk Util to create a RAID 10 using the command line and a bit of time. However, creating a RAID 10 and rebuilding it is a lot easier with the HighPoint web manager solution.
While the HighPoint RocketRAID 2322 can provide RAID 10 read and write performance that is similar, the RocketRAID 2314 write performance is approximately 30-50% slower than the read performance. This limitation hinders the RocketRAID 2314 RAID 10 write performance. However, using 12-16 hard drives with the 2314 in RAID 10 format can still beat the performance of a RR 2322 eight drive RAID 10 configuration.
RAID 50The latest HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 Mac driver version 2.11 adds support for RAID 50 configurations. Sixteen hard drives were mounted in four SATA PM enclosures and connected to the RocketRAID 2314 for the RAID 50 performance test. By using a RAID 50 configuration with four RAID 5 member disks, a fast RAID 50 configuration can be formed. The RocketRAID 2314 RAID 50 setup provided average write performance of 460MB/sec. and average read performance of 481MB/sec.
This RAID 50 disk array configuration utilizes four RAID 5 volumes which are striped together for increase speed. This type of disk array adds increased redundancy and provides good performance. Up to one hard drive in each RAID 5 group can fail and the RAID 50 should still be able to be rebuilt.
The HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 ($200) PCIe SATA host adapter provides RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD capabilities when installed in the Apple Mac Pro. It also supports both direct connect and SATA PM enclosures. I enjoy the simplicity and expansion capability of using SATA PM enclosures. The RocketRAID 2314 enhances this setup by adding redundancy features. Recovering from a hard disk failure is much easier with RAID 5, 10, or 50 than when using a striped RAID set.
The RocketRAID 2314 has some draw backs. It does not share SMART data with Disk Utility or Hardware Monitor. It does not provide boot capability. The HighPoint web manager seems a bit slow to use. However, it gets the job done and provides many more options than Disk Utility. During the review process, HighPoint informed AMUG that the Safari browser is slow to parse their xml based web page and suggested using Firefox to enhance the web manager user experience.
Users that want a fast eight drive direct connect RAID 5 setup will find the RocketRAID 2322 provides great performance. However, users that want to utilize SATA PM enclosures with a RAID 5 setup, will need the RocketRAID 2314 as the 2322 does not support SATA PM. The RocketRAID 2314 has a MSRP that is $100 lower than the RR2322, which also makes it a nice value option. Another
interesting detail that users may want to consider is that the RocketRAID 2314 supports sleep while the RR2322 does not.The RocketRAID 2314 is a feature rich four port external SATA PM compatible host adapter with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD support. It is hard to find all of these features available in a single PCIe card for the Mac Pro for under $200. Apple Mac Pro users that want to expand their hard drive options will find the RocketRAID 2314 provides an amazing amount of features at a very reasonable price.
Pros
Works with Apple Mac Pro PCIe slots.
A mini-SAS version is also available (RocketRAID 2314MS).
Supports up to 20 hard drives on a single host adapter.
Supports SATA PM or direct connect enclosures.
Includes 4 eSATA ports and 4 eSATA data cables.
PCIe 4x compatible. Also works in 8x or 16x slots.
Disk Utility can be used to create RAID 0, 1 or JBOD.
Web manager provides RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD configurations.
Provides great RAID 5 performance with up to 15 hard drives.
Online Capacity Expansion and Online RAID Level Migration feature.
RAID rebuilding capability and drive failure alarm.
Web Manager displays SMART data.
HighPoint bad sector repair feature.
User-upgradeable firmware.
Provides hot spare support.
Supports Sleep.
Cons
No boot capability.
No traditional hot swap support.
Web management software may seem slow with Safari.
RAID 10 write performance is 30-50% slower than read performance.
Mac users cannot change Web Manager user name.
Does not pass SMART data to Disk Utility.
RocketRAID 2314 gets 4 AMUGs out of 5!
The HighPoint Technologies RocketRAID 2314 PCIe SATA host adapter provides Mac Pro users with RAID 0, 1, 5, 10, 50 and JBOD support for both direct connect and SATA PM enclosures. While SATA PM enclosures may be a little slower than a direct connect enclosure, they can support 5x more hard
drives. The draw back to RAID 10 has always been the fact that I never had enough ports to produce high performance. With the new found ability to connect 20 hard drives to the RocketRAID 2314, RAID 10 not only provides the highest crash protection but also extremely high performance. The RocketRAID 2314 opens up the very cool feature of adding redundancy to our SATA PM setups. With a price under $200, the RocketRAID 2314 provides a compelling feature rich SATA host adapter for Mac Pro users interested in expanding their external storage options.Contact Information:
HighPoint Technologies Inc.
1161 Cadillac Court
Milpitas, CA 95035
Phone: (408) 942-5800
Fax: (408) 942-5801
http://www.highpoint-tech.com
Copyright 2007
Arizona Macintosh Users Group, Inc. (AMUG). Visit AMUG at www.amug.org for news, discounts and friends. JOIN AMUG!
(Article updated 8-26-07 using HighPoint 2.11 Mac Driver)
Additional Resources
AMUG HighPoint RocketRAID 2314MS Review
AMUG EnhanceBox E8-PM SATA PM 8-Bay Enclosure Review
AMUG Sonnet Fusion 500P SATA PM Enclosure Review
AMUG Areca ARC-1221x 8-Port, RAID 6, PCIe Controller Review