Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Thu, 15 Dec 2011 15:52:41 +1100
From:      Jan Mikkelsen <janm@transactionware.com>
To:        Borja Marcos <borjam@sarenet.es>
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org, Hugo Silva <hugo@barafranca.com>
Subject:   Re: mfi (Dell H700) + hot swapping doesn't appear to work with RC1
Message-ID:  <4391B719-FABD-4E13-B328-D55EA9E7D74D@transactionware.com>
In-Reply-To: <9317551F-CBE0-4368-B798-498E58E240B2@sarenet.es>
References:  <4EE8A005.5030607@barafranca.com> <9317551F-CBE0-4368-B798-498E58E240B2@sarenet.es>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On 15/12/2011, at 2:16 AM, Borja Marcos wrote:

>=20
> On Dec 14, 2011, at 2:09 PM, Hugo Silva wrote:
>=20
>> Hello,
>>=20
>> First of all apologies if this has been fixed in RC3. I set this =
server
>> up with mfsbsd, which is RC1, and didn't get to update the system =
yet.
>>=20
>> This box has 6 hdds, a 2-mirror zpool was set up as the root pool, =
with
>> 2 spares.
>>=20
>> While testing hot swapping I noticed that while the controller =
detects
>> disk removal/insertion, the zpool will never recover. The problem =
seems
>> to be deeper than ZFS, as disklabel/fdisk/etc also fail on the
>> removed-and-reinserted disk.
>>=20
>> At the ZFS level, doing a zpool clear yields more errors on the =
removed
>> disk; rebooting becomes the only option to make the pool healthy =
again.
>>=20
>>=20
>> Is this normal? Did I miss any step?
>=20
> I assume that you have tried to use the H700 as a "JBOD" card, =
defining logical volume for each hard disk.
>=20
> The problem is: that gorgeous, fantastic, masterful, Nobel award =
candidate card, has a wonderful behavior in that case. If you extract =
one of the disks, the logical volume associated to it is invalidated. =
So, you insert a replacement disk, and the card refuses to recognize the =
volume. What is even worse, in order to recover it's mandatory to reboot =
the complete system *AND* go through the RAID configuration utility.
>=20
> That's the problem. The card refuses  to work as a simple disk =
controller without frills, and the frills get in the way.
>=20
> To summarize: it isn't FreeBSD's fault, no matter which version you =
use. It's a "feature" coming directly from the geniuses who designed the =
card.

Hugo: You missed a step. Borja: No reboot required.

For the mfi controllers I have been testing recently (MegaRAID 9261-8i), =
you need to install the sysutils/megacli port, and use that to clear the =
"foreignness" of the disk you just added. Something like:

    MegaCli -CfgForeign -Clear -a0

You should be able to then recreate it as a JBOD device, and progress =
through whatever higher level recovery you need to do.

Regards,

Jan Mikkelsen






Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4391B719-FABD-4E13-B328-D55EA9E7D74D>