Re: Promise SATA TX4 300 port timeout with sata_promise in 2.6.22, kernel panic in 2.6.23

["I Stratford" <i.d.stratford@gmail.com>]

On Nov 12, 2007 4:01 AM, Tejun Heo <htejun@gmail.com> wrote:

> Mikael Pettersson wrote:
> > First, a workaround for a HW erratum affecting 2nd-generation
> > chips like the SATA300 TX4 was included in kernel 2.6.24-rc2.
> ...
> Alright, if it's fixable, no problem.  I just wanted to remind that
> running the link at 3Gbps isn't worth if it continues to cause problems.

I appreciate the replies and ensuing discussion. I will test
2.6.24-rc2 as soon as possible and let you know the results. At that
time I'll also have more runtime on the 1.5Gbps forced 2.622 and will
be able to follow-up. Would you (Tejun, Mikael) prefer that I mail
linux-ide or you directly? I checked for a linux-ide FAQ and didn't
find one.. :)

Mikael :
> > Secondly, Stratford's system is seriously overloaded:
> > ...
> > - problems began when two Promise 300 TX4 cards and
> >   more disks were added
> > On several occasions we've traced people's problems to
> > overtaxed system components (cooling, PSU, PCI busses).

Tejun:
> Agreed, I've seen my share of those issues.  Especially, SATA links seem
> very dependent on power quality and very weird things happen when the
> power isn't good enough.  Easy way to debug this is connect half of the
> drives to a separate PSU and see what happens.

While I agree that the configuration is "seriously overloaded" (I
believe I described it as "admittedly somewhat insane" ;D) I haven't
experienced any port-resets or timeouts on my new TX4 300s, coming up
on a week of runtime with the 1.5Gbps-only 2.6.22 patched kernel.
Also, the problems did not generally extend to the two pre-existing
TX4 150s on the same PCI bus, even when the TX4 300s were having
problems. If hardware overheating/PCI overload/PSU problems were the
cause, it seems like a very lucky coincidence that stepping the TX4
300s to 1.5Gbps mode also resolves it.  :D

The system's 23 drives are spread across 3 good quality power
supplies. As indicated in my initial mail, I have swapped the PSU on
the new drive with a new one, specifically a 430 watt cooler master
PSU which by my kill-a-watt gives me ~250 watts of headroom even
during spin-up. While my building power is notoriously lousy, I find a
building-power or PSU-power-quality explanation somewhat unlikely,
especially in light of the consistent performance of the two TX4 150s
and the night-and-day performance of 1.5Gbps patched 2.6.22 vice
unpatched 2.6.22 on the two TX4 300s.

Of course, when you're dealing with 23 hard drives in a desktop.. who
knows! Thanks for the replies! :D

___ids