Re: SMART support for SATA drives in SAS enclosures

[Douglas Gilbert <dougg@torque.net>]

Pim Zandbergen wrote:
> Is SMART support available for SATA drives in SAS enclosures?
> 
> I'm testing this setup
> 
> LSI Logic SAS3800X PCI-X SAS controller (mptsas driver)
> Promise V-Trak J300S SAS/SATA enclosure/expander
> 12x Seagate ST3500630NS
> Linux kernel 2.6.21.1 x86_64
> smartmontools-5.37-1.1.fc6 from Fedora Core 6
> 
> "smartctl -i -d sat /dev/sdc" gives me
> 
> Smartctl: Device Read Identity Failed

I presume /dev/sdc is an actual disk rather than a
RAID device made up of several disks. The SAT standard
(and smartmontools) don't have a general way of
addressing individual disks behind RAID infrastructure.

For recent versions of smartmontools version 5.37 and
MPT Fusion SAS HBAs this should work if /dev/sdc is
a SATA disk. Your HBA may need a firmware upgrade.


You might fetch sg3_utils version 1.24 and try:
  sg_sat_identify /dev/sdc
That needs to work before smartctl has a hope.

> Same with "-d ata".
> 
> If I treat the disk as SCSI ("-d scsi"), the command
> will not fail, but wil only retrieve the serial number.

With MPT Fusion SAS hardware (that I have seen) the SAT
layer is in the HBA firmware. Only later versions of the
firmware support the SCSI ATA PASS-THROUGH command.

Doug Gilbert