sata controllers status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error } error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

[Mitchell Laks <mlaks@verizon.net>]

Hi,

I have a production server in place at a remote site. 
I have a single system drive that is an ide drive 
and two data drives that are on a via SATA controller in a raid1 
configuration.

I am monitoring the /var/log/messages and I get messages every few days

Mar 22 23:31:36 A1 kernel: ata6: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 22 23:31:36 A1 kernel: ata6: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

Mar 23 23:20:12 A1 kernel: ata5: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 23 23:20:12 A1 kernel: ata5: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
Mar 23 23:32:03 A1 kernel: ata6: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 23 23:32:04 A1 kernel: ata6: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

Mar 24 23:22:45 A1 kernel: ata5: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 24 23:22:45 A1 kernel: ata5: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }


Mar 27 23:16:57 A1 kernel: ata5: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 27 23:16:57 A1 kernel: ata5: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

Mar 28 23:10:16 A1 kernel: ata5: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 28 23:10:17 A1 kernel: ata5: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }
Mar 28 23:23:32 A1 kernel: ata6: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 28 23:23:32 A1 kernel: ata6: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }


Mar 29 23:33:26 A1 kernel: ata6: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
Mar 29 23:33:26 A1 kernel: ata6: error=0x84 { DriveStatusError BadCRC }

Interestingly by the logs I see that they have occured 

March 1,2,3,8,14,17x3,20x4,21,22,23x2,24,27,28x2,29.

(x2 means two errors as in above example).

Also they occur during the activity of the cron job I do at 11pm to rsync 
backup the sata drive raid 1 to another server.

here is the output of dmesg:


ata5: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:746b 83:7f01 84:4023 85:7469 86:3c01 87:4023 
88:407f
ata5: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 781422768 sectors: lba48
ata5: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
scsi4 : sata_via
ata6: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:746b 83:7f01 84:4023 85:7469 86:3c01 87:4023 
88:407f
ata6: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 781422768 sectors: lba48
ata6: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
scsi5 : sata_via
  Vendor: ATA       Model: WDC WD4000YR-01P  Rev: 01.0
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sda: 781422768 512-byte hdwr sectors (400088 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 781422768 512-byte hdwr sectors (400088 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
 /dev/scsi/host4/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi4, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
  Vendor: ATA       Model: WDC WD4000YR-01P  Rev: 01.0
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sdb: 781422768 512-byte hdwr sectors (400088 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sdb: 781422768 512-byte hdwr sectors (400088 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back
 /dev/scsi/host5/bus0/target0/lun0: p1
Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi5, channel 0, id 0, lun 0


Am I correct in assuming that the sata drives are giving me these errors, 
and what shall I do? Could it possibly be a problem with the sata controller 
rather than the drives?

me@A1:~$ cat /proc/mdstat
Personalities : [raid1]
md0 : active raid1 sda1[0] sdb1[1]
      390708736 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>

I have done some testing with different sata controllers and recently switched 
another server from the built in
sata controller on the A8v (via8237 controller) motherboard to  an add in pci 
promise sata II150 card.

I think I have seen conflicts between the sata_via and sata_promise and I 
already have a sata_promise card in the system for future expandability.

I am running the debian stock 2.6.12-1-386 kernel and debian sarge with mdadm 
ii  mdadm          1.9.0-4sarge1  Manage MD devices aka Linux Software Raid


1:/var/log# lsmod|grep sata
sata_via                8452  2
sata_promise            9988  0
libata                 44164  2 sata_via,sata_promise
scsi_mod              129096  4 sr_mod,sata_promise,libata,sd_mod

Thank you very much.

Mitchell