S.M.A.R.T no working Truenas & ESXI - scsi error unsupported field in scsi command

[Antoine1]

Hi!

I am struggling to get S.M.A.R.T working on my TrueNas.
TrueNas is working on a VM in ESXI 7.0.
My installation is up and running for more than a year know.
I already spotted the issue last year and tried to find solutions but without any luck.
I putted aside the issue for some times but now I'd like to fix it.

4 disks link to the VM:
1 virtual where the system is installed
3 disk attach through RDM which are used for storage (2 of them in mirror and one for backup)

I followed this guide to attach the 3 HDD: RDM attachment

The 3 disks are identified as followed in Truenas:

And here is the kind of infos I can have for each of the 3 disks:

Issue is that when trying to run a S.M.A.R.T test on one of the 3 drivers, I constantly get the following error:

Whatever the kind of test I'm trying to run, the issue is the same.

Does any of you have an idea of where I should look at?
I have to say that despite my (many) researches on the topic I do not find any solutions or guidance which might be helpfull...

Many thanks in advance,

Regards,

Antoine

 

[PichlAlex]

i have the same problem here and this is what i found out.

when using RDM to provide physical disks exclusivly to a VM there is no possibility so send smart commands to the disk - only reading smart data is supported... see https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2040405
in this KB article you can see how to read smart data on the ESXi host

BUT - how to start a test is still unsolved for me - but this is maybe a good starting point:
https://www.virten.net/2016/05/determine-tbw-from-ssds-with-s-m-a-r-t-values-in-esxi-smartctl/

 

[joeschmuck]

In my ESXi experience I have been able to use RDM and pass smartctl commands without issue on my system to the hard drives, but that was with ESXi 5.5 and 6.0, now I'm on 7.0 I'm back to using passthru for the controllers. I'm also not using TrueNAS but I don't think that would make the difference. Sometimes the issue is also the controller, not just ESXi. Since no hardware configuration was provided, it's difficult to provide you an answer. But from my previous experience, RDM worked fine for smartctl commands and data. Good Luck.

 

[PichlAlex]

I just tested this on my ESXi 6.7 u2 using "LSI Logic SAS"

• shutdown Truenas 12u1 VM
• booted Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop Live CD
• apt install smartmontools
• smartctl -t long /dev/sdd

--> Fails with:
Sending command: "Execute Smart Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode".
Command "Execute SMART Extended self-test routine immediately in off-line mode" failed: scsi error unspoorted field in scsi command

so i was able to prove that starting a smart-test using RDM-Disks in ESXi 6.7u2 is not possible and smartdata can only be accessed via ESXi-Shell -> ee https://kb.vmware.com/s/article/2040405

 

[PichlAlex]

after reading the VMware KB another time... it seems that this is not possible since ESXi 5.1:

"In ESXi 5.1, VMware added S.M.A.R.T. functionality to monitor hard drive health."

 

[joeschmuck]

That may be true with LSI Logic SAS controller, I don't have one so I can't play around with it. Passthru works perfectly and RDM worked the last time I tested it. Again, I can't really speak to LSI Logic SAS controllers. As for SMART built into VMWare, well I have seen it work for the boot drive or datastore drives, I don't know if it will detect anything for a passthru drive since the controller is passed through.

 

[PichlAlex]

i tested using this Mainboard: Supermicro A1SAi-2550F with the onboard SATA connectors (SATA controller is inside the SOC) - i do not have a physical LSI Controller in this system.

i am using the LSI Logic SAS controller in the ESXi-VM settings -> see all possible Storage Controllers in first column of table "VMware Storage Controller Compatibility" here : https://docs.vmware.com/en/VMware-v...UID-5872D173-A076-42FE-8D0B-9DB0EB0E7362.html
i am able to choose between "LSI Logic SAS", "LSI Logic Parallel" and "VMWare Paravirtual".

when i set up the system (was back with ESXi 5.5 and Freenas 11.x) the "LSI Logic SAS" had no issues.

what virtual SCSI/SATA do you use with your systems?