From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 20 07:48:33 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id AFE0316A4CE for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 07:48:33 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail.lambertfam.org (www.lambertfam.org [216.223.208.55]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 4469343D48 for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 07:48:33 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from lambert@lambertfam.org) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.lambertfam.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 743A334D67 for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 03:48:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mail.lambertfam.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (www.lambertfam.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 28526-10 for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 03:48:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: from laptop.lambertfam.org (ool-182db8f6.dyn.optonline.net [24.45.184.246]) by mail.lambertfam.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 47AAF34D53 for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 03:48:29 -0400 (EDT) Received: by laptop.lambertfam.org (Postfix, from userid 1001) id DBF78C233; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 02:48:28 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 02:48:28 -0500 From: Scott Lambert To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Message-ID: <20040620074828.GB911@laptop.lambertfam.org> Mail-Followup-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at lambertfam.org Subject: Adaptec RAID controller hanging machine since upgrade to 4.8-RELEASE-p22. Hardware or Driver changes? X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 07:48:33 -0000 I upgraded a machine from 4.7-STABLE to 4.8-RELEASE-p22 a couple of weeks ago. It has now stopped responding to anything other than ICMP requests twice. The previous uptime was over 80 days. There is a web log rotate script which runs at approximately that same time. The error message on the console is (hand transcribed and third hand): asr0: Blink LED 0x7 resetting adapter The web log rotate script does this a few times for various values of httpd-access.log before issuing an apachectl restart: gunzip /var/log/httpd-access.log.0.gz cat /var/log/httpd-access.log >>/var/log/httpd-access.log.0 gzip /var/log/httpd-access.log.0 rm /var/log/httpd-access.log touch /var/log/httpd-access.log ( Yes, I realize how inefficient and bad that script is. It seems designed to abuse the disk subsystem. It was written before I inherited the system and I hadn't actually looked at the script before tonight. ) I found a question about a similar message, s/0x7/0x3/, on a 2400S in the FreeBSD-questions archives on July 2, 2003. I don't see any follow-ups to that message. There is also an older three message thread all from the same poster from October 14 and 16, 2002, about the 0x3 message on a 2100S saying that it had apparently been cured by replacing the cache memory module on the controller. So, it seems likely that I am suffering a hardware failure. However, beginning so soon after the upgrade of the OS and the error number being slightly different scare me that it could be caused by a change to the asr driver. I decided to post this message tonight, just in case, and talk to Adaptec tomorrow. -- Scott Lambert KC5MLE Unix SysAdmin lambert@lambertfam.org From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 20 13:29:15 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19AB416A4CE for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 13:29:15 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail.sandvine.com (sandvine.com [199.243.201.138]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F8A043D4C for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 13:29:14 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from don@sandvine.com) Received: by mail.sandvine.com with Internet Mail Service (5.5.2657.72) id ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 09:29:08 -0400 Message-ID: From: Don Bowman To: 'Scott Lambert' , freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 09:29:03 -0400 MIME-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Internet Mail Service (5.5.2657.72) Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" Subject: RE: Adaptec RAID controller hanging machine since upgrade to 4.8- RELEASE-p22. Hardware or Driver changes? X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 13:29:15 -0000 From: Scott Lambert [mailto:lambert@lambertfam.org] > I upgraded a machine from 4.7-STABLE to 4.8-RELEASE-p22 a couple of > weeks ago. > > It has now stopped responding to anything other than ICMP requests > twice. The previous uptime was over 80 days. There is a web > log rotate > script which runs at approximately that same time. > > The error message on the console is (hand transcribed and third hand): > > asr0: Blink LED 0x7 resetting adapter > Does the asr-utils port tell you anything is failed? From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 20 16:43:31 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 2DC4516A4CE for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 16:43:31 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail.lambertfam.org (www.lambertfam.org [216.223.208.55]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DE1BE43D2F for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 16:43:30 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from lambert@lambertfam.org) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by mail.lambertfam.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17AEE34D5E; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 12:43:28 -0400 (EDT) Received: from mail.lambertfam.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (www.lambertfam.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id 71722-05; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 12:43:26 -0400 (EDT) Received: from laptop.lambertfam.org (ool-182db8f6.dyn.optonline.net [24.45.184.246]) by mail.lambertfam.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 11DC934D53; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 12:43:26 -0400 (EDT) Received: by laptop.lambertfam.org (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 70601C233; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 11:43:25 -0500 (CDT) Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 11:43:25 -0500 From: Scott Lambert To: Don Bowman Message-ID: <20040620164325.GA31247@laptop.lambertfam.org> Mail-Followup-To: Don Bowman , freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.6i X-Virus-Scanned: by amavisd-new at lambertfam.org cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Adaptec RAID controller hanging machine since upgrade to 4.8- RELEASE-p22. Hardware or Driver changes? X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 16:43:31 -0000 On Sun, Jun 20, 2004 at 09:29:03AM -0400, Don Bowman wrote: > From: Scott Lambert [mailto:lambert@lambertfam.org] > > I upgraded a machine from 4.7-STABLE to 4.8-RELEASE-p22 a couple of > > weeks ago. > > > > It has now stopped responding to anything other than ICMP requests > > twice. The previous uptime was over 80 days. There is a web log > > rotate script which runs at approximately that same time. > > > > The error message on the console is (hand transcribed and third > > hand): > > > > asr0: Blink LED 0x7 resetting adapter > > > Does the asr-utils port tell you anything is failed? Nope. The closest thing to an error in "raidutil -d 0 -L all" is a "No battery" message. It wouldn't surprise me if the thing has never had a battery. BTW, I forgot to mention the controller model in my original message. I have no excuse. It's an Adaptec 2000S. -- Scott Lambert KC5MLE Unix SysAdmin lambert@lambertfam.org From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Jun 20 20:43:25 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 61B0516A4CE for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:43:25 +0000 (GMT) Received: from pooker.samsco.org (pooker.samsco.org [168.103.85.57]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DFEB443D31 for ; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:43:24 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scottl@freebsd.org) Received: from freebsd.org (junior-wifi.samsco.home [192.168.0.11]) (authenticated bits=0) by pooker.samsco.org (8.12.11/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i5KKkSXF031219; Sun, 20 Jun 2004 14:46:28 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from scottl@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <40D5F6B8.8060901@freebsd.org> Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 14:42:32 -0600 From: Scott Long User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040304 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: fox@vader.aacc.edu References: In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=3.8 tests=none autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on pooker.samsco.org cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: -stable vs -current handling of SSD_KEY_MISCOMPARE SCSI sense data X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 20 Jun 2004 20:43:25 -0000 fox@vader.aacc.edu wrote: > While trying to diagnose an unrelated hardware problem, I stumbled on > the following code in RELENG_4 sys/cam/scsi/scsi_all.c (1.14.2.11): > > scsi_interpret_sense(...) > { > ... > switch (error_code) { > ... > case SSD_CURRENT_ERROR: > { > switch (sense_key) { > ... > case SSD_KEY_MISCOMPARE: > /* decrement the number of retries */ > retry = ccb->ccb_h.retry_count > 0; > if (retry) { > error = ERESTART; > ccb->ccb_h.retry_count--; > } else { > error = EIO; > } > case SSD_KEY_RECOVERED_ERROR: > error = 0; /* not an error */ > break; > > The lack of a break before "case SSD_KEY_RECOVERED_ERROR:" means that > all assignments to error in case "SSD_KEY_MISCOMPARE:" are expensive > comments, so I doubt that a /* FALLTHROUGH */ was intended. Also, this > code was added as part of 1.18, then MFC'd in 1.14.2.3, so it was most > likely deliberate. > > However, -current seems to ignore this error. sys/cam/scsi/scsi_all.c 1.44 > has: > > const struct sense_key_table_entry sense_key_table[] = > { > ... > { SSD_KEY_MISCOMPARE, SS_NOP, "MISCOMPARE" }, > > If I read the code in sys/cam/cam_periph.c correctly, this matches what > -stable does, but should have s/SS_NOP/SS_RDEF/ to match what I suspect > -stable was meant to do. > > OTOH, if -stable is really meant to do nothing in that case, perhaps it > could do so in a more straightforward way, or have a comment added. > > OTGH, I may be missing something obvious. > > Perusal of cvs-all and freebsd-scsi archives from around the time > scsi_all.c 1.21 was commited failed to elicit obvious clues. > > I eagerly await clue imparting, sarcasm, flamage, or LARTing. > Thanks for bringing this up. I'll review it today or tomorrow and commit whatever is appropriate. Scott From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Jun 21 12:00:56 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B411316A4DC; Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:00:56 +0000 (GMT) Received: from netlx014.civ.utwente.nl (netlx014.civ.utwente.nl [130.89.1.88]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 978BC43D49; Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:00:55 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from eric@monkey-online.net) Received: from EricV.monkey-online.net (ericv.adsl.utwente.nl [130.89.226.252])i5LBxEN01424; Mon, 21 Jun 2004 13:59:14 +0200 Message-Id: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> X-Sender: eric%monkey-online.net@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net (Unverified) X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Version 5.2.1 Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 14:00:13 +0200 To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org From: Eric Veraart Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed X-UTwente-MailScanner-Information: Scanned by MailScanner. Contact helpdesk@ITBE.utwente.nl for more information. X-UTwente-MailScanner: Found to be clean X-MailScanner-From: eric@monkey-online.net cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 21 Jun 2004 12:00:56 -0000 Hello, I was browsing through the mailinglist and was wondering on what the status was on HostRaid support on FreeBSD. Certainly since the new Intel Pentium 4 Entry Server Board SE7210TP1-E supports HostRaid and we're planning to use those boards. The SCSI version of the board has an Adaptec AIC-7901 chip and the SATA version has a 6300esb chip. I can find Linux drivers, but development for FreeBSD seems to be lying still. So who is working on it, or who doesn't have the time/resources to do this? Greetings, Eric From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Jun 22 07:33:33 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0A0C716A4DE; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 07:33:33 +0000 (GMT) Received: from web.portaone.com (web.portaone.com [195.70.151.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 74C1543D54; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 07:33:32 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Received: from portaone.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (authenticated bits=0) by web.portaone.com (8.12.8p2/8.12.8) with ESMTP id i5M7XK46033620; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 09:33:21 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Message-ID: <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 10:33:11 +0300 From: Maxim Sobolev User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en, ru, uk MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Eric Veraart References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> In-Reply-To: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG cc: freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 07:33:33 -0000 Actually support for all those ATA/SCSI software RAIDs, as well as Vinum, should be collapsed into a set of GEOM modules. And no, I am not volunteering. ;) Vinum work is under way, as long as I know, it should not be too hard to add appropriate code to read RAID configuration not from disk, but from appropriate ATA or SCSI controller. -Maxim Eric Veraart wrote: > Hello, > > I was browsing through the mailinglist and was wondering on what the > status was on HostRaid support on FreeBSD. Certainly since the new Intel > Pentium 4 Entry Server Board SE7210TP1-E supports HostRaid and we're > planning to use those boards. The SCSI version of the board has an > Adaptec AIC-7901 chip and the SATA version has a 6300esb chip. I can > find Linux drivers, but development for FreeBSD seems to be lying still. > > So who is working on it, or who doesn't have the time/resources to do this? > > Greetings, > Eric > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 00:43:53 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E71E716A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 00:43:52 +0000 (GMT) Received: from pooker.samsco.org (pooker.samsco.org [168.103.85.57]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7CB6743D39; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 00:43:52 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scottl@freebsd.org) Received: from freebsd.org (junior-wifi.samsco.home [192.168.0.11]) (authenticated bits=0) by pooker.samsco.org (8.12.11/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i5N0kNoE040068; Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:46:25 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from scottl@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> Date: Tue, 22 Jun 2004 18:43:03 -0600 From: Scott Long User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040304 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Maxim Sobolev References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> In-Reply-To: <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=3.8 tests=none autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on pooker.samsco.org cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 00:43:53 -0000 Maxim Sobolev wrote: > Actually support for all those ATA/SCSI software RAIDs, as well as > Vinum, should be collapsed into a set of GEOM modules. And no, I am not > volunteering. ;) While a lot of good work is going into GEOM modules right now, there are two fundamental problems there: 1) lack of unified device/array metadata management. 2) lack of unified error recovery and spare assigment. Many of the metadata designs in use are rather complex and require a unified view of the system in order to assure consistency and correctness. The current stand-alone GEOM modules that exist or are in development have no concept of this. GEOM really doesn't provide any type of a framework to give this consistency either. The easy part of RAID is the mirror/stripe/parity transforms. The hard part of RAID is the error recovery and configuration algorithms. They are also the most important since they directly affect the reliability of the subsystem. GEOM is a great framework for prototyping block level transforms, but the lack of infrastructure for the other pieces really does make it a less-than-ideal solution. At this point, all it really allows is an easy way to mimic ccd(4) (although it would be quite interesting to implement block-level snapshots and possibly volume management with it). > > Vinum work is under way, as long as I know, it should not be too hard to > add appropriate code to read RAID configuration not from disk, but from > appropriate ATA or SCSI controller. I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here. Modern RAID controllers, and _especially_ software raid controllers, do not store their configuratin data in hardware. There are a few exceptions where it is stored and kept private to the hardware for sanity-checking purposes, but it is not exposed to the OS. Scott > > -Maxim > > Eric Veraart wrote: > >> Hello, >> >> I was browsing through the mailinglist and was wondering on what the >> status was on HostRaid support on FreeBSD. Certainly since the new >> Intel Pentium 4 Entry Server Board SE7210TP1-E supports HostRaid and >> we're planning to use those boards. The SCSI version of the board has >> an Adaptec AIC-7901 chip and the SATA version has a 6300esb chip. I >> can find Linux drivers, but development for FreeBSD seems to be lying >> still. >> >> So who is working on it, or who doesn't have the time/resources to do >> this? >> >> Greetings, >> Eric >> >> _______________________________________________ >> freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current >> To unsubscribe, send any mail to >> "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >> >> >> > > > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-scsi > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-scsi-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 10:48:06 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id DD26316A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:48:05 +0000 (GMT) Received: from web.portaone.com (web.portaone.com [195.70.151.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 15D9443D53; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:48:05 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Received: from portaone.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (authenticated bits=0) by web.portaone.com (8.12.8p2/8.12.8) with ESMTP id i5NAm2QO035813; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 12:48:02 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Message-ID: <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 13:47:56 +0300 From: Maxim Sobolev User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en, ru, uk MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Scott Long References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> In-Reply-To: <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 10:48:06 -0000 Scott Long wrote: > Maxim Sobolev wrote: > >> Actually support for all those ATA/SCSI software RAIDs, as well as >> Vinum, should be collapsed into a set of GEOM modules. And no, I am >> not volunteering. ;) > > > While a lot of good work is going into GEOM modules right now, there are > two fundamental problems there: > > 1) lack of unified device/array metadata management. > 2) lack of unified error recovery and spare assigment. > > Many of the metadata designs in use are rather complex and require a > unified view of the system in order to assure consistency and > correctness. The current stand-alone GEOM modules that exist or are in > development have no concept of this. GEOM really doesn't provide any > type of a framework to give this consistency either. > > The easy part of RAID is the mirror/stripe/parity transforms. The hard > part of RAID is the error recovery and configuration algorithms. They > are also the most important since they directly affect the reliability > of the subsystem. GEOM is a great framework for prototyping block level > transforms, but the lack of infrastructure for the other pieces really > does make it a less-than-ideal solution. At this point, all it really > allows is an easy way to mimic ccd(4) (although it would be quite > interesting to implement block-level snapshots and possibly volume > management with it). > >> >> Vinum work is under way, as long as I know, it should not be too hard >> to add appropriate code to read RAID configuration not from disk, but >> from appropriate ATA or SCSI controller. > > > I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about here. Modern RAID > controllers, and _especially_ software raid controllers, do not store > their configuratin data in hardware. There are a few exceptions where > it is stored and kept private to the hardware for sanity-checking > purposes, but it is not exposed to the OS. Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is quite limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with UI for setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides internal RAID structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they provide some persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume either in some controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. Therefore, the same set of GEOM RAID modules can work with different software RAID controllers (SCSI, ATA, SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to extract this info from the controller's driver, and present it in some common format. That's what I am talking about. -Maxim > > Scott > >> >> -Maxim >> >> Eric Veraart wrote: >> >>> Hello, >>> >>> I was browsing through the mailinglist and was wondering on what the >>> status was on HostRaid support on FreeBSD. Certainly since the new >>> Intel Pentium 4 Entry Server Board SE7210TP1-E supports HostRaid and >>> we're planning to use those boards. The SCSI version of the board has >>> an Adaptec AIC-7901 chip and the SATA version has a 6300esb chip. I >>> can find Linux drivers, but development for FreeBSD seems to be lying >>> still. >>> >>> So who is working on it, or who doesn't have the time/resources to do >>> this? >>> >>> Greetings, >>> Eric >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list >>> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current >>> To unsubscribe, send any mail to >>> "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >>> >>> >>> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org mailing list >> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-scsi >> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-scsi-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" > > > > From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 14:12:41 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id BC92216A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:41 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp.des.no (flood.des.no [217.116.83.31]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 19AB043D1F; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:41 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from des@des.no) Received: by smtp.des.no (Pony Express, from userid 666) id 59F95530D; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:12:01 +0200 (CEST) Received: from dwp.des.no (des.no [80.203.228.37]) by smtp.des.no (Pony Express) with ESMTP id 7129F5321; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:11:54 +0200 (CEST) Received: by dwp.des.no (Postfix, from userid 2602) id 52AF6B86C; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:11:54 +0200 (CEST) To: Maxim Sobolev References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> From: des@des.no (=?iso-8859-1?q?Dag-Erling_Sm=F8rgrav?=) Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:11:54 +0200 In-Reply-To: <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> (Maxim Sobolev's message of "Wed, 23 Jun 2004 13:47:56 +0300") Message-ID: User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.3 (berkeley-unix) MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on flood.des.no X-Spam-Level: X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=5.0 tests=AWL autolearn=no version=2.63 cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:12:41 -0000 Maxim Sobolev writes: > Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is > quite limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with > UI for setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides internal > RAID structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they provide some > persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume either in some > controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. The configuration is always stored on-disk, otherwise it wouldn't be possible to recover from controller failure. > Therefore, the same set of GEOM > RAID modules can work with different software RAID controllers (SCSI, > ATA, SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to extract this info > from the controller's driver, and present it in some common > format. That's what I am talking about. You're kicking down open doors. This problem has already been solved for Vinum, which is conceptually identical from a GEOM point of view. DES --=20 Dag-Erling Sm=F8rgrav - des@des.no From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 14:46:07 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5359716A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:46:07 +0000 (GMT) Received: from web.portaone.com (mail.russia.cz [195.70.151.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 98E2B43D48; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:46:06 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Received: from portaone.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (authenticated bits=0) by web.portaone.com (8.12.8p2/8.12.8) with ESMTP id i5NEk3QO050288; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 16:46:04 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Message-ID: <40D997A4.9050900@portaone.com> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 17:45:56 +0300 From: Maxim Sobolev User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en, ru, uk MIME-Version: 1.0 To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?Dag-Erling_Sm=F8rgrav?= References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> In-Reply-To: Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:46:07 -0000 Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote: > Maxim Sobolev writes: > >>Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is >>quite limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with >>UI for setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides internal >>RAID structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they provide some >>persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume either in some >>controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. > > > The configuration is always stored on-disk, otherwise it wouldn't be > possible to recover from controller failure. > > >>Therefore, the same set of GEOM >>RAID modules can work with different software RAID controllers (SCSI, >>ATA, SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to extract this info >>from the controller's driver, and present it in some common >>format. That's what I am talking about. > > > You're kicking down open doors. This problem has already been solved > for Vinum, which is conceptually identical from a GEOM point of view. Nah. As I said there should be some standard way to extract RAID configuration info out of controller's driver in controller-independent format. -Maxim From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 14:49:59 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 70E8F16A4CF; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:49:59 +0000 (GMT) Received: from pooker.samsco.org (pooker.samsco.org [168.103.85.57]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 0BF1A43D39; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:49:59 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from scottl@freebsd.org) Received: from freebsd.org (junior-wifi.samsco.home [192.168.0.11]) (authenticated bits=0) by pooker.samsco.org (8.12.11/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i5NErHd7042752; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 08:53:17 -0600 (MDT) (envelope-from scottl@freebsd.org) Message-ID: <40D99891.20300@freebsd.org> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 08:49:53 -0600 From: Scott Long User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; FreeBSD i386; en-US; rv:1.6) Gecko/20040304 X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Maxim Sobolev References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> <40D997A4.9050900@portaone.com> In-Reply-To: <40D997A4.9050900@portaone.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=3.8 tests=none autolearn=no version=2.63 X-Spam-Checker-Version: SpamAssassin 2.63 (2004-01-11) on pooker.samsco.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 14:49:59 -0000 Maxim Sobolev wrote: > Dag-Erling Smørgrav wrote: > >> Maxim Sobolev writes: >> >>> Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is >>> quite limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with >>> UI for setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides internal >>> RAID structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they provide some >>> persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume either in some >>> controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. >> >> >> >> The configuration is always stored on-disk, otherwise it wouldn't be >> possible to recover from controller failure. >> >> >>> Therefore, the same set of GEOM >>> RAID modules can work with different software RAID controllers (SCSI, >>> ATA, SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to extract this info >>> from the controller's driver, and present it in some common >>> format. That's what I am talking about. >> >> >> >> You're kicking down open doors. This problem has already been solved >> for Vinum, which is conceptually identical from a GEOM point of view. > > > Nah. As I said there should be some standard way to extract RAID > configuration info out of controller's driver in controller-independent > format. > > -Maxim > Correct, and vinum lacks this. My goal with RAIDframe was to provide this, but I had to abandon it due to lack of time. Scott From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 15:10:01 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CEC9F16A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:10:01 +0000 (GMT) Received: from spider.deepcore.dk (cpe.atm2-0-53484.0x50a6c9a6.abnxx9.customer.tele.dk [80.166.201.166]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 17B1A43D46; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:10:01 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sos@DeepCore.dk) Received: from DeepCore.dk (sos.deepcore.dk [194.192.25.130]) by spider.deepcore.dk (8.12.11/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i5NF9klX079784; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 17:09:51 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from sos@DeepCore.dk) Message-ID: <40D99D3B.8010608@DeepCore.dk> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 17:09:47 +0200 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?S=F8ren_Schmidt?= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 (X11/20040329) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Maxim Sobolev References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> In-Reply-To: <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-mail-scanned: by DeepCore Virus & Spam killer v1.4 cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:10:02 -0000 Maxim Sobolev wrote: > Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is quite > limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with UI for > setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides internal RAID > structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they provide some > persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume either in some > controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. Therefore, the same set of GEOM RAID > modules can work with different software RAID controllers (SCSI, ATA, > SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to extract this info from the > controller's driver, and present it in some common format. That's what I > am talking about. Well, I dont know about SCSI, but ATA/SATA always stores the metadata on disk, the controller has nothing todo with the RAID functionality, its merely a way to talk to the disks. Reading the metadata off the disks and using that info to access a RAID array is easy and can be had even without docs in a few hours. Writing back the metadata in case of failures etc to retain sanity of the array is "somewhat" more difficult. Actually I'm working with this currently for new formats for ata-raid and its not trivial to get right. -- -Søren From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 15:18:19 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 35BF716A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:18:19 +0000 (GMT) Received: from web.portaone.com (support.portaone.com [195.70.151.35]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7210943D1F; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:18:18 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Received: from portaone.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) (authenticated bits=0) by web.portaone.com (8.12.8p2/8.12.8) with ESMTP id i5NFHqQO052374; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 17:17:56 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from sobomax@portaone.com) Message-ID: <40D99F19.5010008@portaone.com> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 18:17:45 +0300 From: Maxim Sobolev User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 (ax) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en, ru, uk MIME-Version: 1.0 To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?S=F8ren_Schmidt?= References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> <40D99D3B.8010608@DeepCore.dk> In-Reply-To: <40D99D3B.8010608@DeepCore.dk> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:18:19 -0000 Søren Schmidt wrote: > Maxim Sobolev wrote: > >> Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is >> quite limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with >> UI for setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides internal >> RAID structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they provide some >> persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume either in some >> controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. Therefore, the same set of GEOM >> RAID modules can work with different software RAID controllers (SCSI, >> ATA, SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to extract this info >> from the controller's driver, and present it in some common format. >> That's what I am talking about. > > > Well, I dont know about SCSI, but ATA/SATA always stores the metadata on > disk, the controller has nothing todo with the RAID functionality, its > merely a way to talk to the disks. > > Reading the metadata off the disks and using that info to access a RAID > array is easy and can be had even without docs in a few hours. Writing > back the metadata in case of failures etc to retain sanity of the array > is "somewhat" more difficult. Actually I'm working with this currently > for new formats for ata-raid and its not trivial to get right. But I assume that on-disk format of this info and its location is controller-dependent, so that appropriate code to read/decode this info should probably be in the controller's driver. -Maxim From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Jun 23 15:32:39 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5DD8A16A4CE; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:32:39 +0000 (GMT) Received: from spider.deepcore.dk (cpe.atm2-0-53484.0x50a6c9a6.abnxx9.customer.tele.dk [80.166.201.166]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9095943D48; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:32:38 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from sos@DeepCore.dk) Received: from DeepCore.dk (sos.deepcore.dk [194.192.25.130]) by spider.deepcore.dk (8.12.11/8.12.10) with ESMTP id i5NFWVjv080031; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 17:32:36 +0200 (CEST) (envelope-from sos@DeepCore.dk) Message-ID: <40D9A28F.6020602@DeepCore.dk> Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 17:32:31 +0200 From: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?S=F8ren_Schmidt?= User-Agent: Mozilla Thunderbird 0.5 (X11/20040329) X-Accept-Language: en-us, en MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Maxim Sobolev References: <5.2.1.1.0.20040621135534.068fef40@server01.chassis00.xsnetworks.net> <40D7E0B7.1000905@portaone.com> <40D8D217.5000808@freebsd.org> <40D95FDC.9060802@portaone.com> <40D99D3B.8010608@DeepCore.dk> <40D99F19.5010008@portaone.com> In-Reply-To: <40D99F19.5010008@portaone.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit X-mail-scanned: by DeepCore Virus & Spam killer v1.4 cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 15:32:39 -0000 Maxim Sobolev wrote: > Søren Schmidt wrote: > >> Maxim Sobolev wrote: >> >>> Well, my knowelege about internals of software RAID controllers is >>> quite limited, but as long as I know they are no more than BIOS with >>> UI for setting up RAIDs and interface to main BIOS that hides >>> internal RAID structure allowing to boot off the RAID. Also they >>> provide some persistent storage for RAID configuration, I assume >>> either in some controller's NVRAM or on the HDDs. Therefore, the same >>> set of GEOM RAID modules can work with different software RAID >>> controllers (SCSI, ATA, SATA etc) if there will be a standard way to >>> extract this info from the controller's driver, and present it in >>> some common format. That's what I am talking about. >> >> >> >> Well, I dont know about SCSI, but ATA/SATA always stores the metadata >> on disk, the controller has nothing todo with the RAID functionality, >> its merely a way to talk to the disks. >> >> Reading the metadata off the disks and using that info to access a >> RAID array is easy and can be had even without docs in a few hours. >> Writing back the metadata in case of failures etc to retain sanity of >> the array is "somewhat" more difficult. Actually I'm working with this >> currently for new formats for ata-raid and its not trivial to get right. > > > But I assume that on-disk format of this info and its location is > controller-dependent, so that appropriate code to read/decode this info > should probably be in the controller's driver. Not exactly, its BIOS vendor depended, I know of at least a handfull of controller chips that can be had with at least 2 different BIOS software RAID's that uses different metadata. In some cases you can even take a stack of disks thats normally on a HW RAID controller (like the promise sx6000) and use it on a software RAID setup as the metadata is the same and known by ata-raid. At any rate, this isn't as simple as it sounds (as usual) :) -- -Søren From owner-freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Jun 24 02:01:23 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D1C3716A4CE for ; Thu, 24 Jun 2004 02:01:23 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mail.ambrisko.com (adsl-64-174-51-43.dsl.snfc21.pacbell.net [64.174.51.43]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 8A31A43D48 for ; Thu, 24 Jun 2004 02:01:23 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from ambrisko@ambrisko.com) Received: from server2.ambrisko.com (HELO www.ambrisko.com) (192.168.1.2) by mail.ambrisko.com with ESMTP; 23 Jun 2004 19:01:18 -0700 Received: from ambrisko.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www.ambrisko.com (8.12.9p2/8.12.9) with ESMTP id i5O21ISU048429; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 19:01:18 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ambrisko@ambrisko.com) Received: (from ambrisko@localhost) by ambrisko.com (8.12.9p2/8.12.9/Submit) id i5O21H5g048428; Wed, 23 Jun 2004 19:01:17 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ambrisko) From: Doug Ambrisko Message-Id: <200406240201.i5O21H5g048428@ambrisko.com> In-Reply-To: <40D99D3B.8010608@DeepCore.dk> To: =?ISO-8859-1?Q?S=F8ren_Schmidt?= Date: Wed, 23 Jun 2004 19:01:17 -0700 (PDT) X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL94b (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=unknown-8bit cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org cc: Maxim Sobolev Subject: Re: HostRaid support on FreeBSD X-BeenThere: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: SCSI subsystem List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2004 02:01:24 -0000 Søren Schmidt writes: | Reading the metadata off the disks and using that info to access a RAID | array is easy and can be had even without docs in a few hours. Writing | back the metadata in case of failures etc to retain sanity of the array | is "somewhat" more difficult. Actually I'm working with this currently | for new formats for ata-raid and its not trivial to get right. Of which we've done the Intel 2 drive format read, write deal with broken mirrors etc. Writing and dealing with broke mirrors was harder and can lead to breaking the Intel RAID BIOS code :-( It's available in our -stable ata SATA patches that have been updated to 4.10-RELEASE. Doug A.