recommended 4port SATA controller ?

recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Rainer Fuegenstein]

hi,

I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard with 4 onboard 
SATA ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports. therefore I'm looking for a 
reliable and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.

the less raid features it has the better since I fear that a raid 
controller may initially write some management informationen (signatures 
etc.) to the disks and therefore damage the linux raid5 setup.

And, if possible, it should have low power consumption since it is about 
to be used in a small server powered by photovoltaic panels.

any recommendations aprreciated.

thanks and best regards.

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Majed B.]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16816318004&cm_re=addonics-_-16-318-004-_-Product

There are also similar products by Syba.

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 2:44 PM, Rainer Fuegenstein
<rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
> hi,
>
> I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard with 4 onboard SATA
> ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports. therefore I'm looking for a reliable
> and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.
>
> the less raid features it has the better since I fear that a raid controller
> may initially write some management informationen (signatures etc.) to the
> disks and therefore damage the linux raid5 setup.
>
> And, if possible, it should have low power consumption since it is about to
> be used in a small server powered by photovoltaic panels.
>
> any recommendations aprreciated.
>
> thanks and best regards.
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>



-- 
       Majed B.
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Greg Freemyer]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 7:44 AM, Rainer Fuegenstein
<rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
> hi,
>
> I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard with 4 onboard SATA
> ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports. therefore I'm looking for a reliable
> and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.

Rainer,

The support chips are not always available in all flavors of PCI, so
you need to specify which flavor PCI slots your mother board has.

I don't recall seeing a non-raid 4-port "legacy PCI" controller, but I
can't say I've looked very hard.  Hopefully your motherboard has a
"PCI express" slot available.

If PCI is all you have, I would go with a pair of SiiG controllers.
2-ports each, but they only cost $30 or so.  I have a dozen machines
at least with the 2-port SiiG PCI controllers in them and have had no
issues with linus drivers, etc.

Greg

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Jon Lewis]

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009, Greg Freemyer wrote:

> The support chips are not always available in all flavors of PCI, so
> you need to specify which flavor PCI slots your mother board has.
>
> I don't recall seeing a non-raid 4-port "legacy PCI" controller, but I
> can't say I've looked very hard.  Hopefully your motherboard has a
> "PCI express" slot available.

Search newegg for promise sata and you'll find 4-port PCI non-raid 
SATA/SATA-II for about $70.

----------------------------------------------------------------------
  Jon Lewis                   |  I route
  Senior Network Engineer     |  therefore you are
  Atlantic Net                |
_________ http://www.lewis.org/~jlewis/pgp for PGP public key_________

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Max Waterman]

Jon Lewis wrote:
> On Thu, 17 Sep 2009, Greg Freemyer wrote:
>
>> The support chips are not always available in all flavors of PCI, so
>> you need to specify which flavor PCI slots your mother board has.
>>
>> I don't recall seeing a non-raid 4-port "legacy PCI" controller, but I
>> can't say I've looked very hard.  Hopefully your motherboard has a
>> "PCI express" slot available.
>
> Search newegg for promise sata and you'll find 4-port PCI non-raid 
> SATA/SATA-II for about $70.

When I was looking for EIDE ones, I was finding RAID ones in jbod mode 
would work (for some definition of 'work'), and ended up being cheaper, 
if that's something that's important. Actually, I've been running one 
for the last 4 years or so. IIRC, it's a Highpoint one.

YMMV

Max.

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Rui Santos]

Greg Freemyer wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 7:44 AM, Rainer Fuegenstein
> <rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
>   
>> hi,
>>
>> I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard with 4 onboard SATA
>> ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports. therefore I'm looking for a reliable
>> and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.
>>     
>
> Rainer,
>
> The support chips are not always available in all flavors of PCI, so
> you need to specify which flavor PCI slots your mother board has.
>
> I don't recall seeing a non-raid 4-port "legacy PCI" controller, but I
> can't say I've looked very hard.  Hopefully your motherboard has a
> "PCI express" slot available.
>
> If PCI is all you have, I would go with a pair of SiiG controllers.
> 2-ports each, but they only cost $30 or so.  I have a dozen machines
> at least with the 2-port SiiG PCI controllers in them and have had no
> issues with linus drivers, etc.
>   
There is an Addonics PCI card that will do what you want.
http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/adsa3r5-e.asp . I have
one of those.

Advantages:
- PCI V2.3 66MHz compliant. It will deploy 2.6Gbits/sec.
- Low profile
- RAID fetature
- Support PMP
- Esata

Disadvantages:
- Price
- RAID needs to be set on Windows machine

Check it out...

Rui

> Greg
> --
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>
>
>
>   

-- 

Regards,
Rui Santos

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Tapani Tarvainen]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 08:49:16AM -0400, Greg Freemyer (greg.freemyer@gmail.com) wrote:

> I don't recall seeing a non-raid 4-port "legacy PCI" controller, but I
> can't say I've looked very hard.  Hopefully your motherboard has a
> "PCI express" slot available.

Curiously, I've found 4-port PCI cards much more common
than PCIe ones. In particular, Sil3114-based cards
are ubiquitous and cheap (~US$20). Most of them have
(fake)RAID bios but I've yet to see one where it could not
be disabled or just ignored, at least if you don't
need to boot off it. Fast they aren't but neither is PCI.
There are also some 4-port Sil3124-based PCI cards, somewhat
more expensive and presumably faster, but PCI is likely
to be the bottleneck anyway.

But good, cheap 4-port PCIe cards are hard to find.
There are several high-end cards that require x8 slot
and cost a fortune, but very few x1 cards with 4 ports
with good Linux support; Sunix 4400P is one (Marvell chipset).

Nor do there seem to be any low-end (<$100 or so)
x4 or x8 cards either; Lycom PE-124 looks promising,
but it's eSATA only and no webshop seems to sell it.

Of course, if you can spare two PCIe x1 slots it's easy:
2-port Sil3132 -based cards are abundant, cheap, and work very well.

-- 
Tapani Tarvainen

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Christian Pernegger]

> I'm looking for a reliable and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.

Short version: There aren't any, fakeraid is all the rage now :-(

Longer version: I have two Dawicontrol DC-4320 RAIDs (sata_sil24),
whose fakeraid BIOS can be disabled via jumper. They work great, but
they were ~€100 apiece IIRC and they are PCI-X not regular PCI. Should
be backwards-compatible but you never know.

Cheers,

C.
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Rainer Fuegenstein]

Greg Freemyer wrote:

> The support chips are not always available in all flavors of PCI, so
> you need to specify which flavor PCI slots your mother board has.
the board is an intel D945GSEJT with one PCI express mini card slot (no 
use looking for a 4port controller for this slot I guess) and one 
standard PCI slot (therefore, 2*2ports are not an option).

strangely, the official site doesn't mention the PCI slot ...
http://www.intel.com/products/desktop/motherboards/D945GSEJT/D945GSEJT-overview.htm

... but the manual does:
http://download.intel.com/support/motherboards/desktop/d945gsejt/sb/e5941302us.pdf

the plan is to replace this board with a more power-saving one as soon 
as the new intel atom plattfrom (pinewood? pinetrail?) comes out in 
2010/Q1 (hard to tell which  expansion slots the boards will have then, 
but I bet on PCI).
speed isn't an issue, but low power consumption would be nice (but not 
easy to find in datasheets etc.) since the server is supposed to be 
powered by photovoltaic panels.

thanks for all the hints so far, guys!

cu

> I don't recall seeing a non-raid 4-port "legacy PCI" controller, but I
> can't say I've looked very hard.  Hopefully your motherboard has a
> "PCI express" slot available.
> 
> If PCI is all you have, I would go with a pair of SiiG controllers.
> 2-ports each, but they only cost $30 or so.  I have a dozen machines
> at least with the 2-port SiiG PCI controllers in them and have had no
> issues with linus drivers, etc.
> 
> Greg
> 

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Jon Hardcastle]

--- On Thu, 17/9/09, Rainer Fuegenstein <rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:

> From: Rainer Fuegenstein <rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at>
> Subject: recommended 4port SATA controller ?
> To: linux-raid@vger.kernel.org
> Date: Thursday, 17 September, 2009, 12:44 PM
> hi,
> 
> I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard
> with 4 onboard SATA ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports.
> therefore I'm looking for a reliable and inexpensive 4port
> PCI controller.
> 
> the less raid features it has the better since I fear that
> a raid controller may initially write some management
> informationen (signatures etc.) to the disks and therefore
> damage the linux raid5 setup.
> 
> And, if possible, it should have low power consumption
> since it is about to be used in a small server powered by
> photovoltaic panels.
> 
> any recommendations aprreciated.
> 
> thanks and best regards.
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe
> linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 

Assuming PCI-E

Adaptec 1430SA x4 Port SATA II (300mbps) PCI-E Raid Card *Oem*

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Adaptec-1430SA-x4-Port-SATA-II-%28300mbps%29-PCI-E-Raid-Card-Oem

if not then there also a plethora of other cards. Aria also do some VERY cheap PCI 2 port controllers - but I had problems with 2 of these in at a time...

-----------------------
N: Jon Hardcastle
E: Jon@eHardcastle.com
'Do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring worries of its own.'
-----------------------


      
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[John Bridges]

I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm

It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.

SATA2

Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.

You can disable the BIOS to put a LOT of cards into a single machine
(I have four in one machine).

Costs about $100

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009

Reliable card from a real company.


On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 4:44 AM, Rainer Fuegenstein
<rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
> hi,
>
> I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard with 4 onboard SATA
> ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports. therefore I'm looking for a reliable
> and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.
>
> the less raid features it has the better since I fear that a raid controller
> may initially write some management informationen (signatures etc.) to the
> disks and therefore damage the linux raid5 setup.
>
> And, if possible, it should have low power consumption since it is about to
> be used in a small server powered by photovoltaic panels.
>
> any recommendations aprreciated.
>
> thanks and best regards.
> --
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Matt Garman]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 04:47:24PM +0200, Rainer Fuegenstein wrote:
> the plan is to replace this board with a more power-saving one as
> soon  as the new intel atom plattfrom (pinewood? pinetrail?) comes
> out in  2010/Q1 (hard to tell which  expansion slots the boards
> will have then,  but I bet on PCI).  speed isn't an issue, but low
> power consumption would be nice (but not  easy to find in
> datasheets etc.) since the server is supposed to be  powered by
> photovoltaic panels.

As others have mentioned, when doing SATA over PCI, the bottleneck
will be the PCI bus.  IIRC, SATA2 spec supports up to 300 MB/s, and
PCI is 133 (or 150) MB/s.  Realistically, modern spinning hard
drives usually max out around 100 MB/s, so just two drives can
saturate your PCI bus.  I think those numbers are reasonably close.

But, if, for example, you are serving the data strictly over the
network (i.e. a NAS box), a single Gigabit ethernet connection tops
out at rougly 125 MB/s.  So in this case the network performance
would shadow the reduced performance of the drives on the PCI bus.
(Unless your network controller is also on the PCI bus, then you're
hosed!  It's always good to check the block diagram of the
motherboard.)

Anyway, you asked for four ports, but how about eight?  I'm
surprised no one has mentioned this yet---I'd consider it a bit of a
"classic": Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8.

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009

Eight SATA ports.  It's PCI-X, but I've used mine in regular 32-bit
PCI slots on several different motherboards without any problems.
Plenty of anecdotal evidence on the net as well of people using this
card in 32-bit PCI slots.  Linux support is good (personal
experience plus anecdotal).

I can't speak to its power consumption; there are no heatsinks on
the board, that should mean something.  I don't know, but I would
guess that the PCI bus wasn't designed to provide a lot of power
anyway.

Hope that helps!
Matt

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Kristleifur Daðason]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 9:52 PM, Matt Garman <matthew.garman@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Anyway, you asked for four ports, but how about eight?  I'm
> surprised no one has mentioned this yet---I'd consider it a bit of a
> "classic": Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8.
>
>    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009
>

And an extra +1 from me on the Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8.
Straightforward, effective, nicely fast. Nice card. Especially if it
can go in a PCI slot too - that's REAL useful to know! Thanks.
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Thomas Fjellstrom]

On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm
> 
> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
> 
> SATA2
> 
> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
>

Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one and have been 
having no end of issues with it under linux.

> You can disable the BIOS to put a LOT of cards into a single machine
> (I have four in one machine).
> 
> Costs about $100
> 
> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009
> 
> Reliable card from a real company.
> 
> 
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 4:44 AM, Rainer Fuegenstein
> 
> <rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
> > hi,
> >
> > I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard with 4 onboard
> > SATA ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports. therefore I'm looking for a
> > reliable and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.
> >
> > the less raid features it has the better since I fear that a raid
> > controller may initially write some management informationen (signatures
> > etc.) to the disks and therefore damage the linux raid5 setup.
> >
> > And, if possible, it should have low power consumption since it is about
> > to be used in a small server powered by photovoltaic panels.
> >
> > any recommendations aprreciated.
> >
> > thanks and best regards.
> > --
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 
> --
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> 


-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
tfjellstrom@shaw.ca

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Kristleifur Daðason]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca> wrote:
> On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
>> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
>> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm
>>
>> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
>>
>> SATA2
>>
>> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
>>
>
> Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one and have been
> having no end of issues with it under linux.
>
> --
> Thomas Fjellstrom
> tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
> --

I have,

or rather, I've tried to get an AOC-SASLP-MV8 card going. I think I
can safely say that at least Linux kernel 2.6.31 is a requirement. The
card was basically useless with everything up to 2.6.30, then I tried
2.6.31-rc5 on a whim and it kicked in. Built-in driver support, that
is. However it wasn't stable, it dropped disks when syncing a large
array. I've been meaning to test on 2.6.31 final, and am pretty
optimistic.

-- Kristleifur

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Rainer Fuegenstein]

> Anyway, you asked for four ports, but how about eight?  I'm
> surprised no one has mentioned this yet---I'd consider it a bit of a
> "classic": Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8.
>
>     http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009

If it really works with PCI, this is my choice. which kernel module is
handling the card ?

> I can't speak to its power consumption; there are no heatsinks on
> the board, that should mean something.
the documentation even mentions 0.7A @ 5V that's one more reason to go for
this one.

thanks !


I don't know, but I would
> guess that the PCI bus wasn't designed to provide a lot of power
> anyway.
>
> Hope that helps!
> Matt
>
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Thomas Fjellstrom]

On Thu September 17 2009, Kristleifur Daðason wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca> 
wrote:
> > On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
> >> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
> >> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm
> >>
> >> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
> >>
> >> SATA2
> >>
> >> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
> >
> > Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one and have
> > been having no end of issues with it under linux.
> >
> > --
> > Thomas Fjellstrom
> > tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
> > --
> 
> I have,
> 
> or rather, I've tried to get an AOC-SASLP-MV8 card going. I think I
> can safely say that at least Linux kernel 2.6.31 is a requirement. The
> card was basically useless with everything up to 2.6.30, then I tried
> 2.6.31-rc5 on a whim and it kicked in. Built-in driver support, that
> is. However it wasn't stable, it dropped disks when syncing a large
> array. I've been meaning to test on 2.6.31 final, and am pretty
> optimistic.

Yeah, the driver didn't appear till .30. I have 2.6.31-git4 installed right 
now, and no matter what I do, the controller starts spewing errors:

[ 1455.698186] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1669:mvs_abort_task:rc= 5
[ 1455.698196] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1608:mvs_query_task:rc= 5
...
[ 1424.708085] end_request: I/O error, dev sdh, sector 3072
[ 1424.708106] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Unhandled error code
[ 1424.708111] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK 
driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
[ 1424.708118] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 04 00 00

And thats with perfectly good disks, and with smartd/hddtemp disabled (they 
were causing one of my disks to barf).

All I have to do is start a read from any disk, and after a few minutes, the 
card starts erroring out, and then dies.

It actually seems like it got more unstable from .30 to .31.

I've been trying to get some help with it on the lkml/ide/scsi lists for a 
while now, one person has tried to help, but thats about it.

> -- Kristleifur
> --
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-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[John Bridges]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca> wrote:
> On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
>> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
>> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm
>>
>> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
>>
>> SATA2
>>
>> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
>>
>
> Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one and have been
> having no end of issues with it under linux.
>

I currently use it on a OpenSUSE 11.1 26.27.29-0.1 Kernel.

With OpenSUSE 10.3, sometimes not all drives would be detected at
first power-up because they all took so long to spin up one at a time.
But when I rebooted all drives were seen. Otherwise no major issues
under OpenSUSE 10.3.

Have not had those issues with OpenSUSE 11.1, works perfectly.

Have tested with a variety of 400GB, 750GB, 1TB and 1.5TB drives.

This is with a PCI-X supporting motherboard.

My only experience with the board in a PCI slot is with Win2003
Server, no issues.

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[John Bridges]

On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 5:23 PM, John Bridges <john.bridges@gmail.com> wrote:
> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 4:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca> wrote:
>> On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
>>> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
>>> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm
>>>
>>> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
>>>
>>> SATA2
>>>
>>> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
>>>
>>
>> Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one and have been
>> having no end of issues with it under linux.
>>
>
> I currently use it on a OpenSUSE 11.1 26.27.29-0.1 Kernel.
>
> With OpenSUSE 10.3, sometimes not all drives would be detected at
> first power-up because they all took so long to spin up one at a time.
> But when I rebooted all drives were seen. Otherwise no major issues
> under OpenSUSE 10.3.
>

I should mention under OpenSUSE 10.3, the hot swap didn't work. But
that's something I normally avoid.

I have hot swapped a couple times under OpenSUSE 11.1, and it worked
although I still prefer to not do so since the device lettering
changes if a drive is added or removed from the "middle".

mdraid causing mvsas to lockup? (was: Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?)

[Thomas Fjellstrom]

On Thu September 17 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> On Thu September 17 2009, Kristleifur Daðason wrote:
> > On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca>
> 
> wrote:
> > > On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
> > >> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
> > >> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cfm
> > >>
> > >> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
> > >>
> > >> SATA2
> > >>
> > >> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
> > >
> > > Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one and
> > > have been having no end of issues with it under linux.
> > >
> > > --
> > > Thomas Fjellstrom
> > > tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
> > > --
> >
> > I have,
> >
> > or rather, I've tried to get an AOC-SASLP-MV8 card going. I think I
> > can safely say that at least Linux kernel 2.6.31 is a requirement. The
> > card was basically useless with everything up to 2.6.30, then I tried
> > 2.6.31-rc5 on a whim and it kicked in. Built-in driver support, that
> > is. However it wasn't stable, it dropped disks when syncing a large
> > array. I've been meaning to test on 2.6.31 final, and am pretty
> > optimistic.
> 
> Yeah, the driver didn't appear till .30. I have 2.6.31-git4 installed right
> now, and no matter what I do, the controller starts spewing errors:
> 
> [ 1455.698186] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1669:mvs_abort_task:rc= 5
> [ 1455.698196] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1608:mvs_query_task:rc= 5
> ...
> [ 1424.708085] end_request: I/O error, dev sdh, sector 3072
> [ 1424.708106] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Unhandled error code
> [ 1424.708111] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
> driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
> [ 1424.708118] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 04 00
>  00
> 
> And thats with perfectly good disks, and with smartd/hddtemp disabled (they
> were causing one of my disks to barf).
> 
> All I have to do is start a read from any disk, and after a few minutes,
>  the card starts erroring out, and then dies.
> 
> It actually seems like it got more unstable from .30 to .31.
> 
> I've been trying to get some help with it on the lkml/ide/scsi lists for a
> while now, one person has tried to help, but thats about it.
>

Very strange. I've found that reading from all 4 drives currently connected to 
the controller at once, works. I have 4 dd commands, one reading off each 
drive, and so far no errors, the dd commands aren't locking up, and they are 
going full speed (120MB/s per drive).

If however I attempt to bring up the md raid0 array ontop of these disks, the 
controller locks up, and all of the disks become inaccessible.

Maybe it has something to do with it, but just as the system is booting, I get 
the following, maybe related, maybe not:

ata_id[5183]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:96'
ata_id[5188]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:112'
ata_id[5184]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:80'

(those map to sdg, sdh, and sdf in that order, no report for sde, the first 
disk in the controller)


> > -- Kristleifur
> > --
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-raid" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> 


-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
--
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Re: mdraid causing mvsas to lockup? (was: Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?)

[Thomas Fjellstrom]

On Fri September 18 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> On Thu September 17 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> > On Thu September 17 2009, Kristleifur Daðason wrote:
> > > On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom
> > > <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca>
> >
> > wrote:
> > > > On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
> > > >> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
> > > >> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.cf
> > > >>m
> > > >>
> > > >> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
> > > >>
> > > >> SATA2
> > > >>
> > > >> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
> > > >
> > > > Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one and
> > > > have been having no end of issues with it under linux.
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > Thomas Fjellstrom
> > > > tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
> > > > --
> > >
> > > I have,
> > >
> > > or rather, I've tried to get an AOC-SASLP-MV8 card going. I think I
> > > can safely say that at least Linux kernel 2.6.31 is a requirement. The
> > > card was basically useless with everything up to 2.6.30, then I tried
> > > 2.6.31-rc5 on a whim and it kicked in. Built-in driver support, that
> > > is. However it wasn't stable, it dropped disks when syncing a large
> > > array. I've been meaning to test on 2.6.31 final, and am pretty
> > > optimistic.
> >
> > Yeah, the driver didn't appear till .30. I have 2.6.31-git4 installed
> > right now, and no matter what I do, the controller starts spewing errors:
> >
> > [ 1455.698186] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1669:mvs_abort_task:rc= 5
> > [ 1455.698196] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1608:mvs_query_task:rc= 5
> > ...
> > [ 1424.708085] end_request: I/O error, dev sdh, sector 3072
> > [ 1424.708106] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Unhandled error code
> > [ 1424.708111] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
> > driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
> > [ 1424.708118] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 04
> > 00 00
> >
> > And thats with perfectly good disks, and with smartd/hddtemp disabled
> > (they were causing one of my disks to barf).
> >
> > All I have to do is start a read from any disk, and after a few minutes,
> >  the card starts erroring out, and then dies.
> >
> > It actually seems like it got more unstable from .30 to .31.
> >
> > I've been trying to get some help with it on the lkml/ide/scsi lists for
> > a while now, one person has tried to help, but thats about it.
> 
> Very strange. I've found that reading from all 4 drives currently connected
>  to the controller at once, works. I have 4 dd commands, one reading off
>  each drive, and so far no errors, the dd commands aren't locking up, and
>  they are going full speed (120MB/s per drive).
> 
> If however I attempt to bring up the md raid0 array ontop of these disks,
>  the controller locks up, and all of the disks become inaccessible.
> 
> Maybe it has something to do with it, but just as the system is booting, I
>  get the following, maybe related, maybe not:
> 
> ata_id[5183]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:96'
> ata_id[5188]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:112'
> ata_id[5184]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:80'
> 
> (those map to sdg, sdh, and sdf in that order, no report for sde, the first
> disk in the controller)
> 

So I've let the controller and disks sit all day after finishing a full read 
test (dd if=/dev/sd[efgh] of=/dev/null bs=8M) with all four 1TB drives going 
at the same time, and I've had no errors at all. All four dd commands finished 
without error, and went at full speed.

If I attempt to activate an md raid0 array ontop of any disks on this 
controller the controller starts having a fit, and all disks are inaccessible 
till a hard reset (the machine won't fully reboot, or turn off, as the 
"flushing scsi cache" or "shutting down LVM" steps will hang waiting on drives 
on the wedged controller.

I would really like to get this fixed, if there's anything more I can do to 
help narrow down the problem further, I'll do my best.

-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
--
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Re: mdraid causing mvsas to lockup?

[Thomas Fjellstrom]

On Fri September 18 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> On Fri September 18 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> > On Thu September 17 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> > > On Thu September 17 2009, Kristleifur Daðason wrote:
> > > > On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom
> > > > <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca>
> > >
> > > wrote:
> > > > > On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
> > > > >> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
> > > > >> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV8.
> > > > >>cf m
> > > > >>
> > > > >> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> SATA2
> > > > >>
> > > > >> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
> > > > >
> > > > > Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one
> > > > > and have been having no end of issues with it under linux.
> > > > >
> > > > > --
> > > > > Thomas Fjellstrom
> > > > > tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
> > > > > --
> > > >
> > > > I have,
> > > >
> > > > or rather, I've tried to get an AOC-SASLP-MV8 card going. I think I
> > > > can safely say that at least Linux kernel 2.6.31 is a requirement.
> > > > The card was basically useless with everything up to 2.6.30, then I
> > > > tried 2.6.31-rc5 on a whim and it kicked in. Built-in driver support,
> > > > that is. However it wasn't stable, it dropped disks when syncing a
> > > > large array. I've been meaning to test on 2.6.31 final, and am pretty
> > > > optimistic.
> > >
> > > Yeah, the driver didn't appear till .30. I have 2.6.31-git4 installed
> > > right now, and no matter what I do, the controller starts spewing
> > > errors:
> > >
> > > [ 1455.698186] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1669:mvs_abort_task:rc= 5
> > > [ 1455.698196] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1608:mvs_query_task:rc= 5
> > > ...
> > > [ 1424.708085] end_request: I/O error, dev sdh, sector 3072
> > > [ 1424.708106] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Unhandled error code
> > > [ 1424.708111] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
> > > driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
> > > [ 1424.708118] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00 04
> > > 00 00
> > >
> > > And thats with perfectly good disks, and with smartd/hddtemp disabled
> > > (they were causing one of my disks to barf).
> > >
> > > All I have to do is start a read from any disk, and after a few
> > > minutes, the card starts erroring out, and then dies.
> > >
> > > It actually seems like it got more unstable from .30 to .31.
> > >
> > > I've been trying to get some help with it on the lkml/ide/scsi lists
> > > for a while now, one person has tried to help, but thats about it.
> >
> > Very strange. I've found that reading from all 4 drives currently
> > connected to the controller at once, works. I have 4 dd commands, one
> > reading off each drive, and so far no errors, the dd commands aren't
> > locking up, and they are going full speed (120MB/s per drive).
> >
> > If however I attempt to bring up the md raid0 array ontop of these disks,
> >  the controller locks up, and all of the disks become inaccessible.
> >
> > Maybe it has something to do with it, but just as the system is booting,
> > I get the following, maybe related, maybe not:
> >
> > ata_id[5183]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:96'
> > ata_id[5188]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:112'
> > ata_id[5184]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:80'
> >
> > (those map to sdg, sdh, and sdf in that order, no report for sde, the
> > first disk in the controller)
> 
> So I've let the controller and disks sit all day after finishing a full
>  read test (dd if=/dev/sd[efgh] of=/dev/null bs=8M) with all four 1TB
>  drives going at the same time, and I've had no errors at all. All four dd
>  commands finished without error, and went at full speed.
> 
> If I attempt to activate an md raid0 array ontop of any disks on this
> controller the controller starts having a fit, and all disks are
>  inaccessible till a hard reset (the machine won't fully reboot, or turn
>  off, as the "flushing scsi cache" or "shutting down LVM" steps will hang
>  waiting on drives on the wedged controller.
> 
> I would really like to get this fixed, if there's anything more I can do to
> help narrow down the problem further, I'll do my best.
> 

Does anyone have a clue what might be wrong? Something I could check into? I 
have a couple system migrations to do, and this is blocking that. (my old 
array has been making "click" noises for a year now, and I'm afraid it'll die 
at any time)

-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
--
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Matt Garman]

Sorry, meant to reply to this earlier...

On Fri, Sep 18, 2009 at 01:48:16AM +0200, Rainer Fuegenstein wrote:
> 
> > Anyway, you asked for four ports, but how about eight?  I'm
> > surprised no one has mentioned this yet---I'd consider it a bit of a
> > "classic": Supermicro AOC-SAT2-MV8.
> >
> >     http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815121009
> 
> If it really works with PCI, this is my choice. which kernel
> module is handling the card ?

I would be surprised if it didn't work with your system's PCI slot.
I've read lots of threads on various forms (HardForum, ArsTechnica)
where people use this card for massive fileservers, and don't recall
anyone ever saying it didn't work for them in a regular 32-bit PCI
slot.

Worst case, order it from a retailer with liberal return policies.

As for the kernel module, I believe it's sata_mv.

Regards,
Matt

Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Matthias Urlichs]

On Thu, 17 Sep 2009 16:52:40 -0500, Matt Garman wrote:

> But, if, for example, you are serving the data strictly over the network
> (i.e. a NAS box), a single Gigabit ethernet connection tops out at
> rougly 125 MB/s.  So in this case the network performance would shadow
> the reduced performance of the drives on the PCI bus. (Unless your
> network controller is also on the PCI bus, then you're hosed!  It's
> always good to check the block diagram of the motherboard.)

Or unless you're using RAID5/6 with a write-intensive application. :-/

Re: mdraid causing mvsas to lockup?

[Thomas Fjellstrom]

On Mon September 21 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> On Fri September 18 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> > On Fri September 18 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> > > On Thu September 17 2009, Thomas Fjellstrom wrote:
> > > > On Thu September 17 2009, Kristleifur Daðason wrote:
> > > > > On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 11:02 PM, Thomas Fjellstrom
> > > > > <tfjellstrom@shaw.ca>
> > > >
> > > > wrote:
> > > > > > On Thu September 17 2009, John Bridges wrote:
> > > > > >> I'm a fan of the SuperMicro AOC-SAT2-MV8, great card.
> > > > > >> http://www.supermicro.com/products/accessories/addon/AOC-SAT2-MV
> > > > > >>8. cf m
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> It's an 8 port PCI-X card, works in both PCI and PCI-X slots.
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> SATA2
> > > > > >>
> > > > > >> Drivers for Linux are stable, built in.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > Have you had any experience with the AOC-SASLP-MV8? I've got one
> > > > > > and have been having no end of issues with it under linux.
> > > > > >
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Thomas Fjellstrom
> > > > > > tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
> > > > > > --
> > > > >
> > > > > I have,
> > > > >
> > > > > or rather, I've tried to get an AOC-SASLP-MV8 card going. I think I
> > > > > can safely say that at least Linux kernel 2.6.31 is a requirement.
> > > > > The card was basically useless with everything up to 2.6.30, then I
> > > > > tried 2.6.31-rc5 on a whim and it kicked in. Built-in driver
> > > > > support, that is. However it wasn't stable, it dropped disks when
> > > > > syncing a large array. I've been meaning to test on 2.6.31 final,
> > > > > and am pretty optimistic.
> > > >
> > > > Yeah, the driver didn't appear till .30. I have 2.6.31-git4 installed
> > > > right now, and no matter what I do, the controller starts spewing
> > > > errors:
> > > >
> > > > [ 1455.698186] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1669:mvs_abort_task:rc= 5
> > > > [ 1455.698196] drivers/scsi/mvsas/mv_sas.c 1608:mvs_query_task:rc= 5
> > > > ...
> > > > [ 1424.708085] end_request: I/O error, dev sdh, sector 3072
> > > > [ 1424.708106] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Unhandled error code
> > > > [ 1424.708111] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK
> > > > driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
> > > > [ 1424.708118] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdh] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 08 00 00
> > > > 04 00 00
> > > >
> > > > And thats with perfectly good disks, and with smartd/hddtemp disabled
> > > > (they were causing one of my disks to barf).
> > > >
> > > > All I have to do is start a read from any disk, and after a few
> > > > minutes, the card starts erroring out, and then dies.
> > > >
> > > > It actually seems like it got more unstable from .30 to .31.
> > > >
> > > > I've been trying to get some help with it on the lkml/ide/scsi lists
> > > > for a while now, one person has tried to help, but thats about it.
> > >
> > > Very strange. I've found that reading from all 4 drives currently
> > > connected to the controller at once, works. I have 4 dd commands, one
> > > reading off each drive, and so far no errors, the dd commands aren't
> > > locking up, and they are going full speed (120MB/s per drive).
> > >
> > > If however I attempt to bring up the md raid0 array ontop of these
> > > disks, the controller locks up, and all of the disks become
> > > inaccessible.
> > >
> > > Maybe it has something to do with it, but just as the system is
> > > booting, I get the following, maybe related, maybe not:
> > >
> > > ata_id[5183]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:96'
> > > ata_id[5188]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:112'
> > > ata_id[5184]: HDIO_GET_IDENTITY failed for '/dev/block/8:80'
> > >
> > > (those map to sdg, sdh, and sdf in that order, no report for sde, the
> > > first disk in the controller)
> >
> > So I've let the controller and disks sit all day after finishing a full
> >  read test (dd if=/dev/sd[efgh] of=/dev/null bs=8M) with all four 1TB
> >  drives going at the same time, and I've had no errors at all. All four
> > dd commands finished without error, and went at full speed.
> >
> > If I attempt to activate an md raid0 array ontop of any disks on this
> > controller the controller starts having a fit, and all disks are
> >  inaccessible till a hard reset (the machine won't fully reboot, or turn
> >  off, as the "flushing scsi cache" or "shutting down LVM" steps will hang
> >  waiting on drives on the wedged controller.
> >
> > I would really like to get this fixed, if there's anything more I can do
> > to help narrow down the problem further, I'll do my best.
> 
> Does anyone have a clue what might be wrong? Something I could check into?
>  I have a couple system migrations to do, and this is blocking that. (my
>  old array has been making "click" noises for a year now, and I'm afraid
>  it'll die at any time)
> 

After trying to get an array up on this card, it locked up again. (the array 
that is:)

[ 1762.705866] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
[ 1762.705873] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK 
driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
[ 1762.705882] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 01 77 00 02 c8 00
[ 1947.698246] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
[ 1947.698268] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK 
driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
[ 1947.698277] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 02 3f 00 00 08 00
[ 1947.698308] __ratelimit: 79 callbacks suppressed

[13470.701276] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] Unhandled error code
[13470.701283] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK 
driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
[13470.701292] sd 0:0:0:0: [sdc] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00
[13470.701381] sd 0:0:1:0: [sdd] Unhandled error code
[13470.701385] sd 0:0:1:0: [sdd] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK 
driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
[13470.701393] sd 0:0:1:0: [sdd] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00
[13470.701458] sd 0:0:2:0: [sde] Unhandled error code
[13470.701463] sd 0:0:2:0: [sde] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK 
driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
[13470.701470] sd 0:0:2:0: [sde] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00
[13470.701523] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdf] Unhandled error code
[13470.701527] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdf] Result: hostbyte=DID_OK 
driverbyte=DRIVER_TIMEOUT
[13470.701535] sd 0:0:3:0: [sdf] CDB: Read(10): 28 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 20 00

then as the fan in my hot swap bay is failing, I decided to remove the drives 
to get the unit to stop the fan. Then the entire system locked up hard, 
keyboard LEDs blinking and everything.

-- 
Thomas Fjellstrom
tfjellstrom@shaw.ca
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Re: recommended 4port SATA controller ?

[Bill Davidsen]

Rui Santos wrote:
> Greg Freemyer wrote:
>   
>> On Thu, Sep 17, 2009 at 7:44 AM, Rainer Fuegenstein
>> <rfu@kaneda.iguw.tuwien.ac.at> wrote:
>>   
>>     
>>> hi,
>>>
>>> I need to move my 4 disk raid5 array from a motherboard with 4 onboard SATA
>>> ports to a mainboard with just 2 ports. therefore I'm looking for a reliable
>>> and inexpensive 4port PCI controller.
>>>     
>>>       
>> Rainer,
>>
>> The support chips are not always available in all flavors of PCI, so
>> you need to specify which flavor PCI slots your mother board has.
>>
>> I don't recall seeing a non-raid 4-port "legacy PCI" controller, but I
>> can't say I've looked very hard.  Hopefully your motherboard has a
>> "PCI express" slot available.
>>
>> If PCI is all you have, I would go with a pair of SiiG controllers.
>> 2-ports each, but they only cost $30 or so.  I have a dozen machines
>> at least with the 2-port SiiG PCI controllers in them and have had no
>> issues with linus drivers, etc.
>>   
>>     
> There is an Addonics PCI card that will do what you want.
> http://www.addonics.com/products/host_controller/adsa3r5-e.asp . I have
> one of those.
>
> Advantages:
> - PCI V2.3 66MHz compliant. It will deploy 2.6Gbits/sec.
>   

??? I don't know what they mean by "deploy," but I know what 133MB/s 
means in the PCI bus standard, and 2.6Gbit isn't it. I suspect that's 
max write speed for an N-way raid, N copies of the same data going to 
each drive fed from memory at bus max, but it certainly doesn't mean 
transfer between storage and memory. Sounds like a spec they put in 
advertising, big meaningless (or nearly so) number. Factual, but not a 
normal use case.

> - Low profile
> - RAID fetature
> - Support PMP
> - Esata
>   

Don't think that's what's desired, could be wrong.
> Disadvantages:
> - Price
> - RAID needs to be set on Windows machine
>
> Check it out...
>   

Agree, my BS detector occasionally gets false positives.

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen@tmr.com>
  Unintended results are the well-earned reward for incompetence.