Date: Sun, 20 Jan 2008 18:31:53 +0000 From: Tom Judge <tom@tomjudge.com> To: David Wood <david@wood2.org.uk>, Aldas Nabazas <freebsd.stable1@gmail.com>, ambrisko@freebsd.org, scottl@freebsd.org, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Dell Perc 6 disk geometry problem with RAID5 (both 6.3 final and 7.0 RC1) Message-ID: <47939399.7030308@tomjudge.com> In-Reply-To: <20080120175819.GA52965@owl.midgard.homeip.net> References: <9c1614e00801200608k49195944mf241b7b0aa6a48@mail.gmail.com> <iWIjLWD4t3kHFAjR@wood2.org.uk> <20080120175819.GA52965@owl.midgard.homeip.net>
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Erik Trulsson wrote: > On Sun, Jan 20, 2008 at 04:48:56PM +0000, David Wood wrote: >> [ambrisko@ and scottl@ added to CCs] >> >> Hi there, >> >> In message <9c1614e00801200608k49195944mf241b7b0aa6a48@mail.gmail.com>, >> Aldas Nabazas <freebsd.stable1@gmail.com> writes >>> We bought a new Dell PowerEdge 2950III with Perc 6/i and have the disk >>> geometry problem using 6.3 final or 7.0 RC1. Seems that we are not alone at >>> least one guy has similar problem reported earlier: >>> http://unix.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/FreeBSD/questions/2008-01/msg00506.html >>> This post is related to using BSDLabel and FDISK MBR partition tables with a disk over 2Tb. This is a known limitation of this type of partition table where the max size is 2Tb. If you wish to make a larger partition you must use GPT or the raw device with no partition table (Not recommended!!!!). >>> I was reading the mailing list and found that some of the people are happily >>> using this hardware with the latest FreeBSD: >>> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2008-January/039675.html >>> >>> I just wonder what the status of mfi driver? Maybe it's not fully tested or >>> there will be some important fixes before 7.0 final? We are going to try >>> different RAID combinations but it definitely not working using 6x146GB as >>> RAID5. > > I do not know if the mfi(4) driver has any problems with large disks, but it > is however well known that fdisk(8) and bsdlabel(8) (the tools normally used > to partition disks) have problems with volumes larger than 2TB. > > If you want to use volumes larger than 2TB then gpt(8) is the recommended > way to partition the disks. It is however doubtful if the BIOS in your > system will allow you to boot from a gpt(8) parttioned volume which is > best solved with having a separate - smaller - boot volume where the OS > itself is installed. > I have 5 PERC6/i based systems awaiting deployment atm, might be able to do some very limited testing on one of them if time permits. However I have some very large arrays running on PERC5/e's (6TB Raid 50 - 5 disk spans - 15 * 500Gb disks spread over 2 md1000 shelves) (the systems run RELENG_6_2) and have not seem any issues with them. They are a single gpt partition with UFS2 on them..... As far as I have seen in the last ~8 months there have been no issues with the mfi driver and large arrays. However I cannot say at this stage if the same can be said for the PERC6/i..... > >> This is extremely disappointing to read, as I was relatively close to >> buying a Poweredge 2950 III with PERC 6/i. However, it's no good to me if >> mfi(4) has issues with large virtual disks; the tentative disk >> configuration is 2x146GB as RAID 1 and 4x750GB (or 1TB) as RAID 5. >> >> >> Looking at CVSweb: >> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/cvsweb.cgi/src/sys/dev/mfi/ >> There is one related PCI ID's change to do with DELL sub vendor id's I think that is only on HEAD. Any chance of getting this MFC'd? Tom >> the updates for the 1078 chip which powers the PERC 6 series were >> contributed by LSI, so you would have hoped things were right. There is a >> disclaimer on the code, but you would also hope that someone in the know is >> testing it, especially as my impression has always been that the FreeBSD >> community is favourably disposed towards LSI storage controllers and that >> LSI and their vendors try to help the FreeBSD developers. >> >> >>> Maybe someone could share the RAID combinations they successfully are >>> running on? >> I haven't been keeping a very close eye on the problem as I don't currently >> have any hardware - but is the issue simply one of virtual disk size - >> there's a cut-off size after which things don't work properly? >> >> You could try pulling disks from your server (or removing them from the >> virtual disk) one by one until things start to work. To save a lot of pain >> you could create a virtual disk containing one disk as RAID 0 (a single >> disk) and install the OS on it, leaving the other five disks to play with. >> >> >> I do hope that someone is in a position to investigate this quickly - even >> if it's too late to get the fix in 7.0-RELEASE now. There's nothing that I >> can see as relevant that's waiting for MFC, anyway. >> >> Of course, it's worth checking whether you've got the latest firmware on >> the PERC 6/i - the latest version from Dell appears to be 6.0.1-0080. >> >> >> If this doesn't get fixed soon, I'm either going to have to go to another >> hardware vendor that uses a different RAID controller (HP is a possibility >> - though we're an all Dell shop) or - sniff - leave FreeBSD in favour of a >> Linux distribution. I realise that FreeBSD is a volunteer project, and that >> users can't have any specific expectations - this is not a threat, as I >> like FreeBSD and want to remain in the community, but I would need a new >> server to work properly! >> >> >> Looking at CVSweb, it seems that ambrisko@ and scottl@ are the two people >> most closely associated with the mfi code - I've added them into the CCs. >> My apologies if that was unwelcome. >> > >
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