READ_DMA retries on SSD on my Microserver

[Pierce]

I have an original HP Microserver N40L, been running FreeNAS, every version since 9.3 ...

Due to an issue with 11.2's new boot loader, the HP BIOS, and Sandisk USB sticks, I switched to an SSD as my boot device... this SSD is plugged into the 5th SATA port on the Microserver, normally used for a CD/DVD drive... I've tried 3 different SATA cables, and 2 different new SSDs, and persistently get these READ_DMA errors at 3AM when the freenas-boot scrub runs...

Feb 20 03:01:38 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): READ_DMA. ACB: c8 00 f6 30 86 40 00 00 00 00 01 00
Feb 20 03:01:38 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): CAM status: Command timeout
Feb 20 03:01:38 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): Retrying command
Feb 20 03:02:11 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): READ_DMA. ACB: c8 00 bf 05 e5 40 00 00 00 00 01 00
Feb 20 03:02:11 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): CAM status: Command timeout
Feb 20 03:02:11 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): Retrying command
Feb 20 03:02:47 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): READ_DMA. ACB: c8 00 3a f2 a5 40 00 00 00 00 01 00
Feb 20 03:02:47 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): CAM status: Command timeout
Feb 20 03:02:47 hognas (ada4:ata0:0:1:0): Retrying command


a total of around 12-13 of these happen each night.

now, one weirdness on the Microserver G7 N40L, this 5th SATA port is locked to SATA1 speeds by the BIOS, 150MB/s, while the other 4 SATA ports for the HD's are at 300MB/s. I've found a few blogs that indicate a BIOS 'hack' resets this 5th port to 300 but when I tried it, it didn't seem to work.

Code:

# camcontrol identify /dev/ada4
pass4: <CT120BX500SSD1 M6CR013> ACS-2 ATA SATA 3.x device
pass4: 150.000MB/s transfers (SATA, UDMA6, PIO 512bytes)

protocol              ATA/ATAPI-9 SATA 3.x
device model          CT120BX500SSD1
firmware revision     M6CR013
serial number         1832E1511554
WWN                   0000000000000000
cylinders             16383
heads                 16
sectors/track         63
sector size           logical 512, physical 512, offset 0
LBA supported         234441648 sectors
LBA48 supported       234441648 sectors
PIO supported         PIO4
DMA supported         WDMA2 UDMA6
media RPM             non-rotating
Zoned-Device Commands no
...

I'm currently running the latest/final 10/01/2013 BIOS.

 

[JohnDigital]

You say new drives and cables were tried. So try to pick up an HBA card. Ive run into these issues trying to utilize more than 4 SATA ports on a server motherboard. It was a dell server that I spent a whole day to figure out that only 4 of 6 SATA ports can be used by hard drives. I bet you are running into something similar with HP. One day I just happened to be in a computer store and found a LSI SAS 3081E-R (and a dual port intel NIC!) in the 5 dollar bin, so I just used it to run the SSDs. These work great for adding drives lower than 2TB (SSDs) and can be had on the secondary market for very cheap, sometimes pre-it flashed. The 8087 cables will likely cost more than the card. Or you could just get an M1015 and run all your drives off of it. I run 2 of them in my rig, no problems ever.