From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Jan 16 16:38:47 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5942616A4CE for ; Fri, 16 Jan 2004 16:38:47 -0800 (PST) Received: from enema.egg.net (enema.egg.net [198.206.140.9]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 31B1443D4C for ; Fri, 16 Jan 2004 16:38:46 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from tomg@egg.net) Received: by enema.egg.net (Postfix, from userid 1001) id 86D6E5F0; Fri, 16 Jan 2004 16:38:51 -0800 (PST) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by enema.egg.net (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7F01C58F; Fri, 16 Jan 2004 16:38:51 -0800 (PST) Date: Fri, 16 Jan 2004 16:38:51 -0800 (PST) From: Tom Glover To: Doug White In-Reply-To: <20040116155912.H93165@carver.gumbysoft.com> Message-ID: References: <20040116155912.H93165@carver.gumbysoft.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII cc: stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Promise controller and 5.2 X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sat, 17 Jan 2004 00:38:47 -0000 On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, Doug White wrote: > On Fri, 16 Jan 2004, Tom Glover wrote: > > > > > I am running 5.2-RELEASE with a Promise S150 TX4 Serial ATA RAID > > controller and a couple of WDC SATA drives at RAID 1. I am noticing some > > behavior that does not seem right to me. > > > > Systems boots fine on the two mirrored drives. If I disconnect the drive > > on channel 2 then the system continues to run. However if I disconnect the > > drive on channel 1 it dies. > > Can you explain "dies"? No response on console. > > > If I reboot after the drive on channel 1 fails I can recover and boot off > > the drive on channel 2. However, the Promise S150 BIOS throws up an error > > message about the drive failure that requires manual intervention before > > boot can proceed. > > This is normal for Promise and most ATA RAID, since thats likely to be the > only warning you'll get about a missing disk. Also, some operating systems > are not good about bumping the generation numbers AT ALL, and you can end > up with unsynchronized mirrors if you continue. With the mirror, you > won't lose your data, but its not designed to be fault-tolerant in a > runtime sense. I don't know why you get differing failure modes between > disks, though -- perhaps you aren't using the right disk device? You > should be using ar0. > > > There does not appear to be any way around that. This, IMIHO, is brain > > dead and makes the controller useless for any remote operation. If this > > is SOP for Promise then can someone suggest a SATA RAID controller that > > behaves in a more sane manner? > > You've discovered that ATA RAID is software RAID with hardware assist. > > If you want more transparent ATA RAID, you want 3ware. > > -- > Doug White | FreeBSD: The Power to Serve > dwhite@gumbysoft.com | www.FreeBSD.org > -- Tom Glover