Strange HDD behaviour

[RchGrav]

SAS3 stuff just got updated to P9 drivers and firmware. It's hoped that this is the first stable release, but there's not enough data yet.

The 3108 is also contingent on you figuring out how to use it as an HBA with no HW RAID features.

So far so good for me on the 3008 on a Supermicro Barebone Storage Server. I have been running the P9 through its paces from Sept 4th - 19th on a build I just did based on the Supermicro 6028R-E1CR12L -> http://www.supermicro.com/products/system/2U/6028/SSG-6028R-E1CR12L.cfm .

I copied a bunch of disposable data back and forth to my pool and no errors for me. I also tested dual hot spare configuration which seemed to work pretty darn well.. I must have done this a dozen times... the FreeNAS 9.3.1 hot spares do their job nice and quick!

Anyway.. time will tell.. but for now I'll leave some notes for ya...

Notes here for straightening up the firmware on the Supermicro 6028R-E1CR12L
(It's probably safe to assume this also applies to the 6038R-E1CR16L, 6048R-E1CR24L, 6048R-E1CR36L as well.)

Grab the P9 firmware... here's a link..

http://www.avagotech.com/support/download-search

Do this...

Grab...

9300_8i_Package_P9_IR_IT_Firmware_BIOS_for_MSDOS_Windows
SAS9300_8i_IT.bin firmware and mptsas3.rom bios
(If you try to flash from DOS you will get an ERROR: Failed to initialize PAL.)
so then also grab....
Installer_P9_for_UEFI
sas3flash.efi firmware tool for EFI shell*

Put 3 files on a USB stick... sas3flash.efi, SAS9300_8i_IT.bin, and mptsas3.rom

Now... Boot to EFI shell..

Very short EFI reference
help - guess what this does
map - shows mountable devices.. eg fs1:
mount - as in mount fs1:
[device]: - change to the device which has your sas3flash.efi (and fw, bios too), eg type fs1: and press enter.

sas3flash.efi -listall (get a list of detected HBA's)

WARNING: This next example command can possibly brick your SAS3 adapter.
Listen buddy.. I'm just trying to help and its not my fault if you screw this up..

sas3flash.efi -o -f SAS9300_8i_IT.bin -b mptsas3.rom

Cheers!

Rich

 

[Darren Myers]

Did you do any scrubs of the pool(s) to see if errors were found? Were you able to see if you can pull SMART data as well?

 

[RchGrav]

Did you do any scrubs of the pool(s) to see if errors were found? Were you able to see if you can pull SMART data as well?

Seems ok.. No indications of any issues yet..

Code:

[root@silo] ~# smartctl -t short /dev/da0
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p25 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF OFFLINE IMMEDIATE AND SELF-TEST SECTION ===
Sending command: "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Drive command "Execute SMART Short self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" successful.
Testing has begun.
Please wait 2 minutes for test to complete.
Test will complete after Sat Sep 19 23:44:54 2015

Use smartctl -X to abort test.
[root@silo] ~# smartctl -a /dev/da0
smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p25 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Western Digital Se
Device Model:     WDC WD3000F9YZ-09N20L1
Serial Number:    WD-WMCBLAHBLAHBLAH
LU WWN Device Id: 5 0014ee 6b030af81
Firmware Version: 01.01A02
User Capacity:    3,000,592,982,016 bytes [3.00 TB]
Sector Sizes:     512 bytes logical, 4096 bytes physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS (minor revision not indicated)
SATA Version is:  SATA 3.0, 6.0 Gb/s (current: 6.0 Gb/s)
Local Time is:    Sat Sep 19 23:45:12 2015 EDT
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

=== START OF READ SMART DATA SECTION ===
SMART overall-health self-assessment test result: PASSED

General SMART Values:
Offline data collection status:  (0x80) Offline data collection activity
                                        was never started.
                                        Auto Offline Data Collection: Enabled.
Self-test execution status:      (   0) The previous self-test routine completed
                                        without error or no self-test has ever
                                        been run.
Total time to complete Offline
data collection:                (31260) seconds.
Offline data collection
capabilities:                    (0x7b) SMART execute Offline immediate.
                                        Auto Offline data collection on/off support.
                                        Suspend Offline collection upon new
                                        command.
                                        Offline surface scan supported.
                                        Self-test supported.
                                        Conveyance Self-test supported.
                                        Selective Self-test supported.
SMART capabilities:            (0x0003) Saves SMART data before entering
                                        power-saving mode.
                                        Supports SMART auto save timer.
Error logging capability:        (0x01) Error logging supported.
                                        General Purpose Logging supported.
Short self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   2) minutes.
Extended self-test routine
recommended polling time:        ( 340) minutes.
Conveyance self-test routine
recommended polling time:        (   5) minutes.
SCT capabilities:              (0x70bd) SCT Status supported.
                                        SCT Error Recovery Control supported.
                                        SCT Feature Control supported.
                                        SCT Data Table supported.

SMART Attributes Data Structure revision number: 16
Vendor Specific SMART Attributes with Thresholds:
ID# ATTRIBUTE_NAME          FLAG     VALUE WORST THRESH TYPE      UPDATED  WHEN_FAILED RAW_VALUE
  1 Raw_Read_Error_Rate     0x002f   200   200   051    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  3 Spin_Up_Time            0x0027   161   152   021    Pre-fail  Always       -       10908
  4 Start_Stop_Count        0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       21
  5 Reallocated_Sector_Ct   0x0033   200   200   140    Pre-fail  Always       -       0
  7 Seek_Error_Rate         0x002e   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
  9 Power_On_Hours          0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       237
10 Spin_Retry_Count        0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
11 Calibration_Retry_Count 0x0032   100   253   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
12 Power_Cycle_Count       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       21
16 Unknown_Attribute       0x0022   001   199   000    Old_age   Always       -       34566936410
183 Runtime_Bad_Block       0x0032   100   100   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
192 Power-Off_Retract_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       19
193 Load_Cycle_Count        0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       1
194 Temperature_Celsius     0x0022   125   108   000    Old_age   Always       -       27
196 Reallocated_Event_Count 0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
197 Current_Pending_Sector  0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
198 Offline_Uncorrectable   0x0030   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0
199 UDMA_CRC_Error_Count    0x0032   200   200   000    Old_age   Always       -       0
200 Multi_Zone_Error_Rate   0x0008   100   253   000    Old_age   Offline      -       0

SMART Error Log Version: 1
No Errors Logged

SMART Self-test log structure revision number 1
Num  Test_Description    Status                  Remaining  LifeTime(hours)  LBA_of_first_error
# 1  Short offline       Completed without error       00%       237         -

SMART Selective self-test log data structure revision number 1
SPAN  MIN_LBA  MAX_LBA  CURRENT_TEST_STATUS
    1        0        0  Not_testing
    2        0        0  Not_testing
    3        0        0  Not_testing
    4        0        0  Not_testing
    5        0        0  Not_testing
Selective self-test flags (0x0):
  After scanning selected spans, do NOT read-scan remainder of disk.
If Selective self-test is pending on power-up, resume after 0 minute delay.

[root@silo] ~# zpool scrub tank
[root@silo] ~# zpool status
  pool: freenas-boot
state: ONLINE
  scan: none requested
config:

        NAME        STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        freenas-boot  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada0p2  ONLINE       0     0     0
            ada1p2  ONLINE       0     0     0

errors: No known data errors

  pool: tank
state: ONLINE
  scan: scrub repaired 0 in 0h1m with 0 errors on Sat Sep 19 23:48:31 2015
config:

        NAME                                            STATE     READ WRITE CKSUM
        tank                                            ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-0                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/284957e0-54f7-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/28aa3d5b-54f7-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-1                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/5560a54f-54f7-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/55bfeb35-54f7-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-2                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/8cb54a53-54f7-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/b3e42571-5695-11e5-aa4b-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-3                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/f21b968f-54f7-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/f2802035-54f7-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
          mirror-4                                      ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/524b645d-54fc-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
            gptid/e009e2d6-54fd-11e5-952d-0cc47a34f672  ONLINE       0     0     0
        spares
          gptid/5cd20210-5b03-11e5-ba30-0cc47a34f672    AVAIL
          gptid/a25d0618-5b03-11e5-ba30-0cc47a34f672    AVAIL

errors: No known data errors
[root@silo] ~#

 

[Ericloewe]

Put 3 files on a USB stick... sas3flash.efi, SAS9300_8i_IT.bin, and mptsas3.rom

Strictly speaking, you only need SAS9300_8i_IT.bin and sas3flash.efi. mptsas3.rom is just for the optional boot ROM - and there should be a UEFI version available too, which I'd prefer.

 

[DaveFL]

So is the 3008 now preferred to the 2008 or 2308 or is this still considered to be the first stable release? There are comments on this forum that only in may they were considered alpha.

 

[Ericloewe]

So is the 3008 now preferred to the 2008 or 2308 or is this still considered to be the first stable release? There are comments on this forum that only in may they were considered alpha.

No. SAS2 is stable, SAS3 is unproven. P9 is the first potentially stable driver/firmware release.

 

[jgreco]

I don't believe the 3108 can be put into a pure HBA mode.

 

[Ericloewe]

I don't believe the 3108 can be put into a pure HBA mode.

I think that LSI's SAS3 stuff is a bit more flexible in that regard, with their default mode supporting an IR-like scenario that allows for RAID but still exposes drives like an HBA, at least when used with certain drivers. Or perhaps it's just some rebrands, like Dell.
Definitely something that needs to be investigated by someone with the hardware.

 

[jgreco]

I've got the Supermicro 3108's here and I haven't noticed that mode being available.

 

[Ericloewe]

I've got the Supermicro 3108's here and I haven't noticed that mode being available.

It might have been Dell's firmware, then. Someone mysteriously had properly setup disks on an SAS3 controller with the mfi (I think it was mfi) driver. mfi was supposed to be a unified driver for all SAS3 modes, at least optionally, from what I gathered at the time.

 

[jgreco]

well, at least as of early this year, the performance of the MFI driver really sucks. I wonder if that's been fixed?