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Date:      Wed, 14 Dec 2011 16:16:19 +0100
From:      Borja Marcos <borjam@sarenet.es>
To:        Hugo Silva <hugo@barafranca.com>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: mfi (Dell H700) + hot swapping doesn't appear to work with RC1
Message-ID:  <9317551F-CBE0-4368-B798-498E58E240B2@sarenet.es>
In-Reply-To: <4EE8A005.5030607@barafranca.com>
References:  <4EE8A005.5030607@barafranca.com>

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On Dec 14, 2011, at 2:09 PM, Hugo Silva wrote:

> Hello,
>=20
> First of all apologies if this has been fixed in RC3. I set this =
server
> up with mfsbsd, which is RC1, and didn't get to update the system yet.
>=20
> This box has 6 hdds, a 2-mirror zpool was set up as the root pool, =
with
> 2 spares.
>=20
> While testing hot swapping I noticed that while the controller detects
> disk removal/insertion, the zpool will never recover. The problem =
seems
> to be deeper than ZFS, as disklabel/fdisk/etc also fail on the
> removed-and-reinserted disk.
>=20
> At the ZFS level, doing a zpool clear yields more errors on the =
removed
> disk; rebooting becomes the only option to make the pool healthy =
again.
>=20
>=20
> Is this normal? Did I miss any step?

I assume that you have tried to use the H700 as a "JBOD" card, defining =
logical volume for each hard disk.

The problem is: that gorgeous, fantastic, masterful, Nobel award =
candidate card, has a wonderful behavior in that case. If you extract =
one of the disks, the logical volume associated to it is invalidated. =
So, you insert a replacement disk, and the card refuses to recognize the =
volume. What is even worse, in order to recover it's mandatory to reboot =
the complete system *AND* go through the RAID configuration utility.

That's the problem. The card refuses  to work as a simple disk =
controller without frills, and the frills get in the way.

To summarize: it isn't FreeBSD's fault, no matter which version you use. =
It's a "feature" coming directly from the geniuses who designed the =
card.





Borja.




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