3ware 9550SX Battery dilemma

[Oko]

I am deliberating what to do about one of my older file servers having 2xXeon 5120 2GB or RAM ( I think I can come up with some older module) and most importantly hardware RAID card 3ware 9550SX. My original plan was to rebuilt the machine as a backup storage using vanilla FreeBSD 10.1, hardware RAID and UFS until I saw this

Code:

3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0055): Battery charging started:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0056): Battery charging completed:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0053): Battery capacity test is overdue:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0051): Battery health check started:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0052): Battery health check completed:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0055): Battery charging started:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0056): Battery charging completed:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0053): Battery capacity test is overdue:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0055): Battery charging started:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0056): Battery charging completed:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0053): Battery capacity test is overdue:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0055): Battery charging started:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0056): Battery charging completed:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x0053): Battery capacity test is overdue:.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: WARNING: (0x06:0x002C): Unit #1: Command (0x2a) timed out, resetting card.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO (0x04:0x005E): Cache synchronization completed:unit=1.
3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: WARNING (0x04:0x0032): Spare capacity too small for some units:spare unit=2, RAID unit=0.

Obviously I need new battery pack which surprisingly cost over $50 (any suggestions where can I find cheaper will be appreciated). The truth of the matter I don't want to use it as a hardware raid since it doesn't support RAID 6. However I found that it support JBOD mode of course.

My question is if I use this hardware RAID card in JBOD mode can I safely remove batter pack since RAID card will no longer be cashing things? If that is the case I might be better off investing little money in memory and running ZFS on a shoe string. Any advise comment is highly appreciated.

 

[cyberjock]

No. 3ware doesn't do the SMART stuff properly with FreeNAS. The controller itself is unsuitable for FreeNAS.

Since you mentioend that you are considering FreeBSD I will add that that card really isn't appropriate for ZFS or any server where the card cannot talk to the proprietary 3ware software to determine the condition of your disks. This basically means "junk it if you want ZFS and keep it if you are going to use it with Windows".

I had a 9550-something. I don't think it was an SX, but the entire 9000 family is basically unsuitable.

 

[Oko]

Sorry I left out in my original post that idea was to use hardware RAID with UFS not ZFS. Thus I was thinking of vanilla FreeBSD and buying new battery pack $60. Currently server runs CentOS 4 :( One of options is just to decommission old junk (I just retired 3 servers today with pleasure). There are no Windows in our Lab except on the walls so that is definitely not an option :) Any additional input cyberjock? Your post was very useful!

 

[Oko]

I picked a clue from your post. I recall now vividly this RAID card. The only tool available for this card is proprietary tw_cli. This is very good how-to http://hwraid.le-vert.net/wiki/3Ware
That thing of course exist for FreeBSD
http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/sysutils/tw_cli/
However you are saying that JBOD mode sucks due to poor interaction with SMART which leaves ZFS completely out of picture just like I originally thought.

 

[cyberjock]

I picked a clue from your post. I recall now vividly this RAID card. The only tool available for this card is proprietary tw_cli. This is very good how-to http://hwraid.le-vert.net/wiki/3Ware
That thing of course exist for FreeBSD
http://svnweb.freebsd.org/ports/head/sysutils/tw_cli/
However you are saying that JBOD mode sucks due to poor interaction with SMART which leaves ZFS completely out of picture just like I originally thought.

Exactly!