From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 11 03:30:15 2013 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [8.8.178.115]) (using TLSv1 with cipher ADH-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (No client certificate requested) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 874175D4; Fri, 11 Oct 2013 03:30:15 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from vas@mpeks.tomsk.su) Received: from relay2.tomsk.ru (mail.sibptus.tomsk.ru [212.73.124.5]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6E43A2209; Fri, 11 Oct 2013 03:30:13 +0000 (UTC) X-Virus-Scanned: by clamd daemon 0.97.5 for FreeBSD at relay2.tomsk.ru Received: from admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru (account sudakov@sibptus.tomsk.ru [212.73.125.240] verified) by relay2.tomsk.ru (CommuniGate Pro SMTP 5.1.16) with ESMTPSA id 35081744; Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:30:11 +0700 Received: from admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru (sudakov@localhost [127.0.0.1]) by admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru (8.14.7/8.14.7) with ESMTP id r9B3UBOY076372; Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:30:11 +0700 (NOVT) (envelope-from vas@mpeks.tomsk.su) Received: (from sudakov@localhost) by admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru (8.14.7/8.14.7/Submit) id r9B3UBoE076371; Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:30:11 +0700 (NOVT) (envelope-from vas@mpeks.tomsk.su) X-Authentication-Warning: admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru: sudakov set sender to vas@mpeks.tomsk.su using -f Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 10:30:11 +0700 From: Victor Sudakov To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: mpt problem on a Supermicro motherboard (FreeBSD 9.2 amd64) Message-ID: <20131011033011.GB76053@admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru> References: <20131008091521.GB4094@admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20131008091521.GB4094@admin.sibptus.tomsk.ru> Organization: AO "Svyaztransneft", SibPTUS X-PGP-Key: http://www.dreamwidth.org/pubkey?user=victor_sudakov X-PGP-Fingerprint: 10E3 1171 1273 E007 C2E9 3532 0DA4 F259 9B5E C634 User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.21 (2010-09-15) Cc: Justin Gibbs , Scott Long X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.14 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2013 03:30:15 -0000 Victor Sudakov wrote: > > I have several Supermicro-based servers with the mpt RAID adapter: > > # mptutil show adapter > mpt0 Adapter: > Board Name: UNUSED > Board Assembly: > Chip Name: C1068E > Chip Revision: UNUSED > RAID Levels: none > # > > The problem is, I cannot configure any RAIDs (please see output > below) from FreeBSD. If I configure volumes from BIOS setup, FreeBSD > still sees them as separate physical discs. What am I doing wrong? > > I cannot use gmirror with these servers because a) if no MPT RAID is > configured in BIOS setup, it cannot boot from HDD and b) if an MPT > RAID *is* configured in BIOS setup, it occupies the last sector and > prevents GEOM from working with these drives. > > Any help please? (or redirect me to a more appropriate maillist). After many unsuccessful trials and googling, we had to reconfigure the adapter from RAID mode to IT mode. It required flashing the adapter's BIOS from a Supermicro-supplied image and changing a jumper setting on the motherboard. Now as the adapter is in IT mode, it is a plain HBA the BIOS can boot from, and I have set up a gmirror on the SAS disks. After flashing the adapter BIOS, don't forget to enter its setup (Ctrl-C) and enable hotplugging of disks (called "Removable Media Support" in the menu, off by default). People come across similar problems and solutions on other OSes, like http://ubuntuforums.org/archive/index.php/t-973912.html -- Victor Sudakov Tomsk, Russia Russian Barefoot FAQ at http://www.barefooters.ru/barefoot.txt