Marvell SATA status

Marvell SATA status

[Jan Bakuwel]

Hi,

I need to decide whether to add an additional 3ware SATA RAID adapter to
a server or to utilise the onboard Marvell SATA RAID adapter
(preferred). The Marvell driver (2.6.15.1) is "highly experimental" and
I see no traffic mentioning this driver since Sept last year... I was
wondering what the current status is. If it's still alive I'm obviously
offering to help debug it...

cheers,
Jan

Re: Marvell SATA status

[Greg Freemyer]

On 1/17/06, Jan Bakuwel <jan.bakuwel@int.greenpeace.org> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> I need to decide whether to add an additional 3ware SATA RAID adapter to
> a server or to utilise the onboard Marvell SATA RAID adapter
> (preferred). The Marvell driver (2.6.15.1) is "highly experimental" and
> I see no traffic mentioning this driver since Sept last year... I was
> wondering what the current status is. If it's still alive I'm obviously
> offering to help debug it...
>
> cheers,
> Jan
Jan,

I believe that driver is discussed on the libata (or sata) list
(linux-ide@vger.kernel.org), not the scsi list.

A status message was just posted there saying at least one of the
Marvell SATA controllers is marked "highly experimental" for a reason,
but please post feedback as it is still being worked on.

Greg
--
Greg Freemyer
The Norcross Group
Forensics for the 21st Century

Re: Marvell SATA status

[Jeff Garzik]

Jan Bakuwel wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I need to decide whether to add an additional 3ware SATA RAID adapter to
> a server or to utilise the onboard Marvell SATA RAID adapter

Note that the Marvell chip is not RAID.  See 
http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html


> (preferred). The Marvell driver (2.6.15.1) is "highly experimental" and
> I see no traffic mentioning this driver since Sept last year... I was
> wondering what the current status is. If it's still alive I'm obviously
> offering to help debug it...

You will have better luck on the linux-ide list, though there admittedly 
aren't a lot of sata_mv hackers.

Patches are certainly welcome.  sata_mv needs some more errata 
workarounds before it could be said to be ready for production.

	Jeff

Re: Marvell SATA status

[Jan Bakuwel]

Hoi Jeff,

> Note that the Marvell chip is not RAID.  See 
> http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html

The Marvell chip isn't listed on that page unless my eye sight is 
deterioting :-)

The BIOS identifies it as an Adaptec HostRAID 6041 controller (?), 
allows for setting up the arrays etc, however, 'lspci -vv' identifies it 
as a Marvell Technology  MV88SX6041 RAID controller.

It could indeed be software RAID by controller, but as far as the OS is 
concerned the controller presents the array to the OS as a single disc...

> You will have better luck on the linux-ide list, though there admittedly 
> aren't a lot of sata_mv hackers.

Will have a look there too, thanks.

> Patches are certainly welcome.  sata_mv needs some more errata 
> workarounds before it could be said to be ready for production.

The current driver doesn't work:

sys1:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1 count=1
1+0 records in
1+0 records out
1 bytes transferred in 61.346053 seconds (0 bytes/sec)
sys1:~#

So it does recognise the drive but nothing else happens.

I certainly won't be able to complete the driver by myself... so if 
there's little interest in it my only option would be to use the 3ware 
controller...

Thanks for your help,

Jan


-- 

A journalist once asked the late Gandhi what he thought of the western
civilization. Gandhi replied: "Western Civilization? That would be a
good idea!".

----

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Re: Marvell SATA status

[Jeff Garzik]

Jan Bakuwel wrote:
> Hoi Jeff,
> 
>> Note that the Marvell chip is not RAID.  See 
>> http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html
> 
> 
> The Marvell chip isn't listed on that page unless my eye sight is 
> deterioting :-)

Yes but you get the general point.


> The BIOS identifies it as an Adaptec HostRAID 6041 controller (?), 

"HostRAID" == software RAID


> allows for setting up the arrays etc, however, 'lspci -vv' identifies it 
> as a Marvell Technology  MV88SX6041 RAID controller.
> 
> It could indeed be software RAID by controller, but as far as the OS is 
> concerned the controller presents the array to the OS as a single disc...

Incorrect.  The driver sees only the individual discs.

	Jeff

Re: Marvell SATA status

[Jan Bakuwel]

Hoi Jeff,

> Incorrect.  The driver sees only the individual discs.

Thanks for your help, software RAID is not good enough...

cheers,
Jan

-- 

A journalist once asked the late Gandhi what he thought of the western
civilization. Gandhi replied: "Western Civilization? That would be a
good idea!".

----

Ships Unit
Information, Communication, Technology
Greenpeace International
Ottho Heldringstraat 5
1066 AZ  AMSTERDAM
Netherlands (MET)

direct    +31 (0)20 7182084
fax       +31 (0)20 5148151
reception +31 (0)20 5148150
email     jan.bakuwel&int.greenpeace.org
private   jan.bakuwel&hccnet.nl
(replace & by @ in the emailaddress)