LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 problems

LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 problems

[Alexander Jolk]

Hi,

I'm trying to get an LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 controller to work on a 
Debian/sarge system with kernel 2.6.11-9-em64t-p4-smp from unstable. 
The megaraid_mbox module is loaded and seems to identify the controller, 
but whenever I try to access the disk, I get SCSI errors, the controller 
alarm goes off, and upon inspection in the BIOS, the first SATA disc is 
marked `FAILED'.  Reconfiguring the RAID lets me restart the whole process.

Simple question: am I doing something stupid, or else are there known 
problems, or should this normally work?  Pointers to docs would be very 
welcome, I've googled around quite a while but cannot seem to find 
relevant info.

Alex

Kernel messages follow:
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: megaraid cmm: 2.20.2.5 (Release Date: 
Fri Jan 21 00:01:03 EST 2005)
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: megaraid: 2.20.4.5 (Release Date: Thu 
Feb 03 12:27:22 EST 2005)
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: megaraid: probe new device 
0x1000:0x0409:0x1000:0x3008: bus 4:slot 14:func 0
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:04:0e.0[C] -> 
GSI 24 (level, low) -> IRQ 24
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: megaraid: fw version:[813F] bios 
version:[H425]
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: scsi4 : LSI Logic MegaRAID driver
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: scsi[4]: scanning scsi channel 0 [Phy 
0] for non-raid devices
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: scsi[4]: scanning scsi channel 1 
[virtual] for logical drives
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel:   Vendor: MegaRAID  Model: LD 0 RAID0 
469G  Rev: 813F
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel:   Type:   Direct-Access 
       ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: SCSI device sdb: 960933888 512-byte 
hdwr sectors (491998 MB)
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: Losing some ticks... checking if CPU 
frequency changed.
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdb: asking for cache data failed
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: SCSI device sdb: 960933888 512-byte 
hdwr sectors (491998 MB)
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdb: asking for cache data failed
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdb: assuming drive cache: write through
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel:  /dev/scsi/host4/bus1/target0/lun0: 
unknown partition table
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi4, 
channel 1, id 0, lun 0
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: megaraid: probe new device 
0x1000:0x0409:0x1000:0x3008: bus 5:slot 14:func 0
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:05:0e.0[C] -> 
GSI 28 (level, low) -> IRQ 28
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: megaraid: fw version:[813F] bios 
version:[H425]
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: scsi5 : LSI Logic MegaRAID driver
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: scsi[5]: scanning scsi channel 0 [Phy 
0] for non-raid devices
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: scsi[5]: scanning scsi channel 1 
[virtual] for logical drives
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel:   Vendor: MegaRAID  Model: LD 0 RAID0 
469G  Rev: 813F
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel:   Type:   Direct-Access 
       ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: SCSI device sdc: 960933888 512-byte 
hdwr sectors (491998 MB)
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdc: asking for cache data failed
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: SCSI device sdc: 960933888 512-byte 
hdwr sectors (491998 MB)
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdc: asking for cache data failed
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: sdc: assuming drive cache: write through
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel:  /dev/scsi/host5/bus1/target0/lun0: 
unknown partition table
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: Attached scsi disk sdc at scsi5, 
channel 1, id 0, lun 0
Jun  7 19:25:24 player2k kernel: e1000: eth0: e1000_watchdog: NIC Link 
is Up 100 Mbps Full Duplex
Jun  7 19:25:28 player2k kernel: NET: Registered protocol family 10
Jun  7 19:25:28 player2k kernel: Disabled Privacy Extensions on device 
ffffffff8038f300(lo)
Jun  7 19:25:28 player2k kernel: IPv6 over IPv4 tunneling driver
Jun  7 19:25:30 player2k kernel: XFree86: vm86 mode not supported on 64 
bit kernel
Jun  7 19:25:39 player2k kernel: eth0: no IPv6 routers present
Jun  7 19:27:17 player2k kernel: md: md driver 0.90.1 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, 
MD_SB_DISKS=27
Jun  7 19:27:27 player2k kernel: SCSI error : <4 1 0 0> return code = 
0x40001
Jun  7 19:27:27 player2k kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 0
Jun  7 19:27:27 player2k kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical 
block 0
Jun  7 19:27:27 player2k kernel: SCSI error : <4 1 0 0> return code = 
0x40001
Jun  7 19:27:27 player2k kernel: end_request: I/O error, dev sdb, sector 8
Jun  7 19:27:27 player2k kernel: Buffer I/O error on device sdb, logical 
block 1
[many more of these...]

-- 
Alexander Jolk  * BUF Compagnie * alexj@buf.com
Tel +33-1 42 68 18 28  *  Fax +33-1 42 68 18 29

Re: LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 problems

[Alexander Jolk]

Alexander Jolk wrote:

> I'm trying to get an LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 controller to work on a 
> Debian/sarge system with kernel 2.6.11-9-em64t-p4-smp from unstable. The 
> megaraid_mbox module is loaded and seems to identify the controller, but 
> whenever I try to access the disk, I get SCSI errors, the controller 
> alarm goes off, and upon inspection in the BIOS, the first SATA disc is 
> marked `FAILED'.  Reconfiguring the RAID lets me restart the whole process.

Following up to myself, I compiled my own kernel 2.6.11.11 and things 
appear to work so far.  Known problem that has been fixed, or worth 
investigating?

I would also appreciate pointers to sites, mailing lists, or people 
likely to know how to configure things for maximum speed.  (I've got two 
SATA RAID controllers with 6 discs each, and I need > 300MB/s reading 
speed through the filesystem.  So far, I was thinking of doing XFS over 
MD-RAID0 over two hardware RAID0, and things look rather promising.)

Thanks in advance,
	Alex

-- 
Alexander Jolk  * BUF Compagnie * alexj@buf.com
Tel +33-1 42 68 18 28  *  Fax +33-1 42 68 18 29

Re: LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 problems

[Alexander Jolk]

Alexander Jolk wrote:
> Alexander Jolk wrote:
> 
>> I'm trying to get an LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 controller to work on a 
>> Debian/sarge system with kernel 2.6.11-9-em64t-p4-smp from unstable. 
>> The megaraid_mbox module is loaded and seems to identify the 
>> controller, but whenever I try to access the disk, I get SCSI errors, 
>> the controller alarm goes off, and upon inspection in the BIOS, the 
>> first SATA disc is marked `FAILED'.  Reconfiguring the RAID lets me 
>> restart the whole process.
> 
> 
> Following up to myself, I compiled my own kernel 2.6.11.11 and things 
> appear to work so far.  Known problem that has been fixed, or worth 
> investigating?

Any pointers, anybody?  While things are working a little better, I 
still get a complete RAID crash every once in a while (a few hours of 
use, typically).  Since I have got no reaction so far, is more 
information needed, or should I take my questions somewhere else?  Where?

Alex


-- 
Alexander Jolk  * BUF Compagnie * alexj@buf.com
Tel +33-1 42 68 18 28  *  Fax +33-1 42 68 18 29

Re: LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 problems

[Kallol Biswas]

Hello Alexander,
               Could you get the LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-8X controller
working for a long duration?

Have you run any performance benchmark on it yet? How much bandwidth do
you get with the controller?

Thanks,
Kallol
kallol@nucleodyne.com
http://www.nucleodyne.com

On Thu, 2005-06-09 at 08:26, Alexander Jolk wrote:
> Alexander Jolk wrote:
> >  Jolk wrote:
> > 
> >> I'm trying to get an LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 controller to work on a 
> >> Debian/sarge system with kernel 2.6.11-9-em64t-p4-smp from unstable. 
> >> The megaraid_mbox module is loaded and seems to identify the 
> >> controller, but whenever I try to access the disk, I get SCSI errors, 
> >> the controller alarm goes off, and upon inspection in the BIOS, the 
> >> first SATA disc is marked `FAILED'.  Reconfiguring the RAID lets me 
> >> restart the whole process.
> > 
> > 
> > Following up to myself, I compiled my own kernel 2.6.11.11 and things 
> > appear to work so far.  Known problem that has been fixed, or worth 
> > investigating?
> 
> Any pointers, anybody?  While things are working a little better, I 
> still get a complete RAID crash every once in a while (a few hours of 
> use, typically).  Since I have got no reaction so far, is more 
> information needed, or should I take my questions somewhere else?  Where?
> 
> Alex
> 

Re: LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 problems

[Alexander Jolk]

Kallol Biswas wrote:
> Hello Alexander,
>                Could you get the LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-8X controller
> working for a long duration?
> 
> Have you run any performance benchmark on it yet? How much bandwidth do
> you get with the controller?

With a 2.6.11.11 kernel, I had it working for a few days finally before 
giving up.  I don't quite remember what bandwidth I got; since I didn't 
get any echo neither from LSI Logic nor on the mailing list, I've 
switched to 3ware controllers with software RAID since, getting 400MB/s 
sustained.

Alex




-- 
Alexander Jolk         /         BUF Compagnie
tel +33-1 42 68 18 28 /  fax +33-1 42 68 18 29

Re: LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-X8 problems

[Kallol Biswas]

The 3ware controller you used is a PCI 2.2 64/66Mhz 900 series
controller, right?

What is the theoretical limit with the adapter? 528MB/sec, right?

On Tue, 2005-07-12 at 07:52, Alexander Jolk wrote:
> Kallol Biswas wrote:
> > Hello Alexander,
> >                Could you get the LSI MegaRAID SATA 300-8X controller
> > working for a long duration?
> > 
> > Have you run any performance benchmark on it yet? How much bandwidth do
> > you get with the controller?
> 
> With a 2.6.11.11 kernel, I had it working for a few days finally before 
> giving up.  I don't quite remember what bandwidth I got; since I didn't 
> get any echo neither from LSI Logic nor on the mailing list, I've 
> switched to 3ware controllers with software RAID since, getting 400MB/s 
> sustained.
> 
> Alex
> 
> 
>