Re:

[Laurence Oberman <loberman@redhat.com>]

On Fri, 2026-09-25 at 21:00 +0200, Pluess, Tobias wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I am seeing a problem with the mpt3sas driver when using an
> LSI/Broadcom SAS9207-8e connected to an external tape drive (HP
> Ultrium 6650).
> This setup worked without issues with older kernels. I cannot 100%
> sure identify at which date the problem started to occur, but I would
> say it started to occur around April or May this year.
> 
> What happens:
> a) the external tape drive is connected to the HBA using a SAS 8088
> cable.
> b) the tape drive is switched on and is detected normally and works
> as
> expected, backups can be made.
> c) after the backup finishes, the tape is ejected and the drive is
> idle, it is switched off.
> 
> Here begins the interesting story. In the dmesg, I see the following
> errors:
> 
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:40 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: detecting: handle(0x0009),
>                            sas_address(0x50014380353cba70), phy(3)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:40 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: REPORT_LUNS: handle(0x0009),
>                            retries(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:40 2026] TEST_UNIT_READY: handle(0x0009) lun(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:41 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: detecting: handle(0x0009),
>                            sas_address(0x50014380353cba70), phy(3)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:41 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: REPORT_LUNS: handle(0x0009),
>                            retries(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:41 2026] TEST_UNIT_READY: handle(0x0009) lun(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:41 2026] START_UNIT: handle(0x0009), lun(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:45 2026] TEST_UNIT_READY: handle(0x0009) lun(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:46 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: detecting: handle(0x0009),
>                            sas_address(0x50014380353cba70), phy(3)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:46 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: REPORT_LUNS: handle(0x0009),
>                            retries(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:46 2026] TEST_UNIT_READY: handle(0x0009) lun(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:46 2026] START_UNIT: handle(0x0009), lun(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:49 2026] TEST_UNIT_READY: handle(0x0009) lun(0)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:52 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: log_info(0x31130000):
> originator(PL), code(0x13), sub_code(0x0000)
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:53 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: handle(0x0009),
> ioc_status(0x0022) failure at
> drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas_transport.c:228/_transport_set_identify(
> )!
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:53 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: failure at
> drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas_scsih.c:8407/_scsih_add_device()!
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:54 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: handle(0x0009),
> ioc_status(0x0022) failure at
> drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas_transport.c:228/_transport_set_identify(
> )!
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:54 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: failure at
> drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas_scsih.c:8407/_scsih_add_device()!
> [Fri Sep 25 20:02:55 2026] mpt2sas_cm6: handle(0x0009),
> ioc_status(0x0022) failure at
> drivers/scsi/mpt3sas/mpt3sas_transport.c:228/_transport_set_identify(
> )!
> 
> Here, the last 2 lines are printed to dmesg approximately every
> second, ad infinitum until the system is rebooted; the error never
> stops. I am certain this did not occur with older versions of
> mpt3sas,
> but as I said, I cannot pinpoint exactly when the change happened.
> 
> Powering up the tape drive again fixes the error, but as soon as the
> tape drive is switched off again, the error reappears.
> 
> However, the error doesn't occur every time the drive is switched
> off.
> Sometimes the mpt3sas driver seems to be happy and no errors are
> reported. I think it has to do with some kind of timing, i.e. in
> which
> internal state the mpt3sas driver is when the external drive is
> disconnected.
> 
> Hardware:
> * Serial Attached SCSI controller: Broadcom / LSI SAS2308 PCI-Express
> Fusion-MPT SAS-2 (rev 05)
> * external tape drive HP Ultrium 6650
> * Linux pve0 7.0.14-12-pve #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC PMX 7.0.14-12
> (2026-08-11T11:05Z) x86_64 GNU/Linux
> * mpt3sas
> 
> 
> I wonder why this problem occurs and how it could be prevented. I
> have
> to say, my hot swap HDDs are connected to
> 
> Serial Attached SCSI controller: Broadcom / LSI SAS3416 Fusion-MPT
> Tri-Mode I/O Controller Chip (IOC) (rev 01)
> 
> and here, I never have the issue, it only appears with the 9207-8e.
> 
> I made my own "fix" to stop the driver from filling up my dmesg with
> errors; using a little bash script with these commands
> 
> echo "0000:51:00.0" > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/mpt3sas/unbind
> echo "0000:51:00.0" > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/mpt3sas/bind
> 
> resets the driver and it then stops printing errors. However I think
> this is not a true solution to the problem, it just fixes the
> symptom.
> 
> 
> Any ideas how to proceed?
> Unfortunately I don't quickly have another system handy where I could
> test older versions of the driver.
> 
> Thanks,
> Greetings
> Tobias
> 

Hello
Any chance you can boot an earlier set of kernels to try narrow down
when this started. I don't have the older hardware to reproduce in our
lab here. I will do some code inspection in the meantime to try figure
out what triggers this and come up with some ideas.

Would be good to know which version older kernel was not seeing this.
Thanks
Laurence