From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Christopher Smith Subject: Re: Problems with multiple Promise SATA150 TX4 cards Date: Wed, 25 Jan 2006 00:27:43 +1100 Message-ID: <43D62B4F.1080505@nighthawkrad.net> References: <43D5EF58.9010807@wasp.net.au> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <43D5EF58.9010807@wasp.net.au> Sender: linux-raid-owner@vger.kernel.org To: Brad Campbell Cc: Mark Hahn , linux-raid@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-raid.ids Brad Campbell wrote: > > I have 3 cards with 12 drives in one box, and 4 card with 15 drives in > another. > They work just dandy. They are not the fastest machines in the world, > and the PCI but sometime groans under the strain, but it's reliable and > error-free. Are these the same cards I have ? > Can you send an lspci -vv please? I did have some strange problems with > the BIOS setting up weird timing modes on some of the cards. This did > not present a reliability problem for me, just performance however. I attached lspci output to my original post. I have also included it on the end of this one (with a slight difference regarding which slots the cards were in, but that makes no difference to the problem). > My 1st quick and dirty test would be to boot with a UP kernel. (Only > because that is all I have also) And to try a vanilla kernel.org kernel > rather than the Redhat one. (I have one machine on 2.6.10 and one on > 2.6.15-git11. Both are solid) I have tried the latest Fedora Core 4 kernel, both SMP and UP. I have also tried their 2.6.11 UP kernel (2.6.11-1.1369_FC4). All exhibit the problem, although it appears that the 2.6.11 kernel takes slightly longer for it to appear (maybe 10 vs 5 seconds). I have not tested with a vanilla kernel. I'll try to do it tomorrow (although I suspect it won't help). > bklaptop:~>ssh storage1 uname -a > Linux storage1 2.6.15-git11 #1 Sun Jan 15 22:25:19 GST 2006 i686 GNU/Linux > bklaptop:~>ssh srv uname -a > Linux srv 2.6.10 #4 Mon Feb 14 23:10:38 GST 2005 i686 GNU/Linux > > Are you using the cards in standard PCI 33Mhz Slots? I recall an issue a > while ago where someone had a big problem with the cards in 66Mhz Slots. The cards were all in PCI-X slots ranging from 64/66 to 64/133. I tried placing one of the cards in the only regular 32/33 PCI slot my motherboard has and it does not help (this is the configuration where the attached lspci was taken). > Another test I'd like you to try if you would, is place one or two > drives on each controller, so you only have 3 in the system.. and then > try to reproduce the error. This configuration also produces the error. Something else I tried was some crappy dual-port SIL-based SATA card with two of the Promise TX4s, and that worked without a problem. While I'm waiting to find out what this is, I might buy another one and use the two of them temporarily so I can build my RAID array, at least. Thanks for your help. CS