HighPoint RocketRaid 1740 issues, unable to see 2 of 4 disks in Disk Management

[simon#56]

Hi all,

I've been using NAS4Free for years, really like it. However I do not know very much about Linux but can definately find my way around the GUI.

I've built my own NAS using a custom 19' rack and added several components to it. Using a Gigbyte mini-ITX mainboard with a HighPoint RocketRaid 1740 SATA controller.
The NAS4Free is installed on an USB disk running 9.3.0.2 - Nayla (revision 1283)
Using the controller I currently have 4x 3TB Seagate and 4x2TB Hitachi disks attached
The 3TB disks are connected to the mainboard and the 2TB disks are connected to the HP1740.

and this is where the problem is:
After initial installation and configuration all the disks where visible in the Disk Management overview. I made the confoguration, added all the mountpoints and configured SMB/CIFS, this all worked fine for a couple of days.
but after some days 2 disks (I saw some errors on the CLI, cannot remember which ones) connected to the HP1740 have disapeared from the Disk Management. why? If I do an Import Disks, Rescan Disks or Clear config and Import Disks the missing disks do not return.



using the following command I can see all the 4 channels on the HP1740 are started, so this is good right?

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homenas: ~ # dmesg | grep -i hptrr
hptrr0: <sx508x> port 0xd000-0xd0ff mem 0xe2000000-0xe20fffff irq 20 at device 0.0 on pci3
hptrr: adapter at PCI 3:0:0, IRQ 20
hptrr: start channel [0,0]
hptrr: start channel [0,1]
hptrr: start channel [0,2]
hptrr: start channel [0,3]
hptrr: [0 0] Start channel soft reset.
hptrr: [0 1] Start channel soft reset.
hptrr: [0 2] Start channel soft reset.
hptrr: [0 3] Start channel soft reset.
hptrr: channel [0,0] started successfully
hptrr: channel [0,1] started successfully
hptrr: channel [0,2] started successfully
hptrr: channel [0,3] started successfully
hptrr0: [GIANT-LOCKED]
da0 at hptrr0 bus 0 scbus7 target 0 lun 0
da1 at hptrr0 bus 0 scbus7 target 1 lun 0

What is wrong? What do I need to do the get my Disks back in the Disk Management? Any ideas how to fix this problem?

[Lee Sharp]

Some add in cards are of questionable quality. You may have lost a couple of ports. More likely, however, you have bad/loose SATA cables or power connectors. I like the locking SATA cables for this reason. Check you connections, and make sure the card is seated properly. Try swapping the SATA cables at the card, and see if the drive moves as expected, or if it still looks the same with a new serial number.

[simon#56]

Hi Lee,

thank you for the reply. This issue has been driving me crasy for some days now. I already ordered and installed new SATA cables with locking feature. I will check the power connections again, but it's hard to believe these are the problem.
I suspect that it is something in the software of NAS4Free. because after installation all the drives where there. I've been moving around disks to get data copied from old to new disks, could this be the problem?

Also another note, In the BIOS of the mainboard and in the Controller (BIOS) screen I can see all the disks, to it seems the information in not passed or handeled correctly by NAS4Free.

[simon#56]

I've been reading some other posts and have been playing around with the command smartctl. And now it gets strange
using

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smartctl -x -d hpt,1/x /dev/hptrr

I get the following for one of the disks that is present:

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smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p7 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000
Device Model:     Hitachi HDS722020ALA330
Serial Number:    JK1170YAHVAD7T
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000cca 221da102c
Firmware Version: JKAOA3EA
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is:    Mon Jan 12 23:27:57 2015 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
AAM feature is:   Unavailable
APM feature is:   Disabled
Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
Write cache is:   Enabled
ATA Security is:  Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]
Write SCT (Get) Feature Control Command failed: Bad address
Wt Cache Reorder: Unknown (SCT Feature Control command failed)

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

and I also get data for the other 3 disks, see below for another one. This is information from a disk that is not shown in the Disk Management, how is this possible?

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smartctl 6.3 2014-07-26 r3976 [FreeBSD 9.3-RELEASE-p7 amd64] (local build)
Copyright (C) 2002-14, Bruce Allen, Christian Franke, www.smartmontools.org

=== START OF INFORMATION SECTION ===
Model Family:     Hitachi Deskstar 7K2000
Device Model:     Hitachi HDS722020ALA330
Serial Number:    JK1101YBKXVESF
LU WWN Device Id: 5 000cca 221f7642b
Firmware Version: JKAOA3EA
User Capacity:    2,000,398,934,016 bytes [2.00 TB]
Sector Size:      512 bytes logical/physical
Rotation Rate:    7200 rpm
Form Factor:      3.5 inches
Device is:        In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is:   ATA8-ACS T13/1699-D revision 4
SATA Version is:  SATA 2.6, 3.0 Gb/s
Local Time is:    Mon Jan 12 23:29:09 2015 CET
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled
AAM feature is:   Unavailable
APM feature is:   Disabled
Rd look-ahead is: Enabled
Write cache is:   Enabled
ATA Security is:  Disabled, NOT FROZEN [SEC1]
Write SCT (Get) Feature Control Command failed: Bad address
Wt Cache Reorder: Unknown (SCT Feature Control command failed)

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

[simon#56]

And alos I see this:

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<ST3000DM001-1ER166 CC43>          at scbus0 target 0 lun 0 (ada0,pass0)
<ST3000DM001-1ER166 CC43>          at scbus1 target 0 lun 0 (ada1,pass1)
<ST3000DM001-1ER166 CC43>          at scbus3 target 0 lun 0 (ada2,pass2)
<ST3000DM001-1ER166 CC25>          at scbus4 target 0 lun 0 (ada3,pass3)
<HPT DISK 0_0 4.00>                at scbus7 target 0 lun 0 (da0,pass4)
<HPT DISK 0_1 4.00>                at scbus7 target 1 lun 0 (da1,pass5)
<hp v165w 1100>                    at scbus8 target 0 lun 0 (da2,pass6)

weird...

[Lee Sharp]

Is it possible that you set up the 4 disks in a pair of two disk mirrors on the raid card? In that case, nas4free would not see all the disks...

[simon#56]

There seems to be some problems with the hptrr. nas4free does not show the disks connected to the controller anymore, only the disks connected to the mainboard are visible in the Disk Management. This is probaly because I initialized the disks from the BIOS of the HighPoint RocketRaid 1740. I hope it did not destroy my data.



And if I did it all correctly there is no RAID configured in the BIOS of the RocketRaid 1740, it is just setup as JBOD. I'll make a screenshot and post it later on.

the strange part is that S.M.A.R.T is able to post data about the connected disks. when using the command

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smartctl -x -d hpt,1/x /dev/hptrr --> where x is the channel/port number

I get this

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homenas: /mnt # smartctl -x -d hpt,1/3 /dev/hptrr | grep Serial
Serial Number:    JK1101YBKZ351F
homenas: /mnt # smartctl -x -d hpt,1/1 /dev/hptrr | grep Serial
Serial Number:    JK1170YAHVAD7T
homenas: /mnt # smartctl -x -d hpt,1/2 /dev/hptrr | grep Serial
Serial Number:    JK1130YAH8JE6T
homenas: /mnt # smartctl -x -d hpt,1/3 /dev/hptrr | grep Serial
Serial Number:    JK1101YBKZ351F
homenas: /mnt # smartctl -x -d hpt,1/4 /dev/hptrr | grep Serial
Serial Number:    JK1101YBKXVESF

[simon#56]

okay, for now the problem seems to be solved. It was a PEBKAC (Problem Exists Between Keyboard And Chair )
The config in the BIOS op de RocketRaid1740 was not setup correctly, by me apperantly.





I modified it and now I can see all 8 disks in the Disk Management, 2bad my data on the disks is gone

[Lee Sharp]

This is why I hate RAID cards... Far to easy to break. Sorry for your loss...