Dell Perc 6ir slow to initialize zfs pool

[RAJOD]

I finally got around to building my 5th nas.

This one will be inside a new levovo thinkserver TS140. Probably the best bang for the buck ECC server. (260.00) CPU/ECC/CASE/PS/DVD

I have two 1TB SAS drives, brand new never used. And a few Raid cards lying around the house. The first card I'm testing is a Dell PERC 6/ir its the same as the 6i but has no battery backed cache.

The drives appear in the bios and in nas4free 9.3 But seem to be slow to initialize. Its been 40 minutes and still not done. It may never finish.

I did these steps and all went as expected but the initialization.

1. Disk Management - import disks
they will show up with unformatted under file system.

2. disks/format choose ZFS storage pool device for the first drive.
check (dont erase MBR usefull for some raid cards.

3. choose ZFS from disks menu and set up a pool

- add a virtual device first, select both drives and type (mirror)
- enable advanced 4k sectors.
- make a pool, it will take some time to initialize.

Anyone have an idea why they are not initializing?

[b0ssman]

because the changes could not be applied.
initialization is near instantaneous.

try creating the pool from the command line.

also consider flashing your controller to the it mode.

see
http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1036388001

[RAJOD]

Sorry Bossman, if it only were that simple

If you look at the screen shots you can see it gives an "error message" when I click apply changes.

If i look at the log I see this.

root: cannot create 'SASzpool': invalid argument for this pool operation
Aug 29 03:56:47 nas4free root: zpool create -m /mnt/SASzpool SASzpool mirror /dev/da0 /dev/da1

[b0ssman]

i saw that later an changed my message

[RAJOD]

My 6ir card is flashed with that same bios in the thread.

LSI corp config utility ver 6.36.00.00 (8-24-2011)
firmware 1.33.00.00-ir

I sort of got stuck with these drives and would like to use them. Bought them brand new for a workstation but they were too new (6 Gb/sec) to be raided on the Perc 6i or even a HP raid card. They show up on the card but can't be raided via hardware.
it will say "wrong drive type" or something like that when attempting to build an array.

The seller told me to buy an Adaptec card. Which might work but it was like $400.00 card. I thought it might be a Dell issue so flashed to LSI but still won't raid from cards bios. Both drives do show up.

Could use them on my Dell server buts its backplane is for 2.5" SAS drives and would have to try to extend the backplane which is more trouble than its worth. That has a Perc 700H which would probably run the drives.

So thought Nas4free could software raid them if it could see them. Well it can see them but can't init the pool.

Could not raid them with a HP raid card either. Makes me wonder if the drives are bad, but what are the odds of both being bad. So figured its a controller comparability issue.

[b0ssman]

if you want to use zfs its better to flash the it firmware and not the ir firmware.

why is it trying to create a pool with the name SASzpool when your guid has per6irpool as the name?

[RAJOD]

Those are just names. pool name, VD name etc. I dont think it matters what you name them. I could name them BOB1, BOB2.

[b0ssman]

the command zpool create -m /mnt/SASzpool SASzpool mirror /dev/da0 /dev/da1 looks correct.

can you do a
ls -la /dev/da*

[apollo567]

Perhaps Try a Dell Perc H310 instead, They are realtivly cheap compated to an adapetec (got mine between EUR 60 to 120). Thats ab LSI 9240 OEM and has 8 Sata-Ports. Similar Adapter of this Series are Available for up to 16 ports. I use them without problems with 4 TB WD RED disks

[RAJOD]

double post sorry

[RAJOD]

Perhaps Try a Dell Perc H310 instead, I use them without problems with 4 TB WD RED disks

I can use WD reds right now if I want. These are SAS drives not SATA.

I've had no issues with SATA drives I just happen to have these new SAS drives. Have to look up the percH310 to see if they work with 6Gb/sec SAS and NLSAS drives. Its almost not worth it to put more money into these. If it had not been so long I would have sent them back or traded them for SATA. Its almost a quest now to get these SAS drives working. I have 3 extra raid controllers, 1 dell and 2 HPs and I can't make an array with any of them. So I am very hesitant to spend more money on raid cards, I don't need a 4th raid card collecting dust.

I would get the H310 if I knew 100 percent it would work with these drives.

[b0ssman]

what about the ls?

[RAJOD]

Sorry Bossman, though I pasted the results, doing too much at once. Trying to locate my firmware, those LSI links are all dead now. I read up on the IT mode, yes that sounds like what I need. Did not even know that was an option when I flashed. At the time I intended to use the cards hardware raid. I just found it but have to make a boot disk and reflash. I'll report back.

lenovonas: ~ # ls -la /dev/da*
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x71 Aug 29 01:09 /dev/da0
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x72 Aug 29 01:09 /dev/da1
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x73 Aug 29 01:01 /dev/da2
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x74 Aug 29 01:01 /dev/da2s1
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x77 Aug 29 01:01 /dev/da2s1a
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x75 Aug 29 01:01 /dev/da2s2
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x78 Aug 29 01:01 /dev/da2s2b
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x76 Aug 29 01:01 /dev/da2s3
crw-r----- 1 root operator 0x79 Aug 29 01:01 /dev/da2s3a
lenovonas: ~ #

[RAJOD]

Arggh. Found my flash file, made a dos boot disk. Ran the hbaflash.bat and went through all the prompts.
At the very end it asks Q=quit or F=Flash
Choose F.
and get

ERROR: Failure to initialize PAL. exits program.

Don't remember getting that error last time. Could be I did it on my old Dell vs a new MB this time. This guy had same issues.
http://brycv.com/blog/2012/flashing-it- ... as9211-8i/

[RAJOD]

Ok getting ready to pull hair out.

The solve for the Flash issues was to open up my old Dell Nas and put the Perc6ir in that then boot from a dos7 USB and run hbaflash.bat. Apparently copying IT over IR version gives issues on certain MBs. It was faster than trying to DL different installers. So now I am running the IT version. Confusing.

Dell Perc 6ir is actually a LSI sas 3081E-R HOST BUS ADAPTER.
but the chip is actually a LSI SAS 1068E (rev B3) need to know the B3 too. So had to pull and look at chip.

After all that swapping of parts, booting and flashing etc. I still get

root: cannot create 'LenovoZ': invalid argument for this pool operation
Aug 29 05:10:29 lenovonas root: zpool create -m /mnt/LenovoZ LenovoZ mirror /dev/da0 /dev/da1

I can format, I can make ZFS storage pool device, I can make VD mirror,...

But when I try to initialize the pool. No go.

Anyone have some dynamite?

[apollo567]

Here is the Supportinfo from LSI for this adapter:
http://www.lsi.com/support/Pages/downlo ... AS+3081E-R

[/quote] Dell Perc 6ir is actually a LSI sas 3081E-R HOST BUS ADAPTER.
but the chip is actually a LSI SAS 1068E (rev B3) need to know the B3 too. So had to pull and look at chip.[/quote]

Given my experience with this adapter, this Adapter can only handle SATA drives up to 2TB, only SAS drive may go higher If I remember ist correct. This was the reason why I moved to the Perc H310.

[b0ssman]

can you create a stripe for testing instead of a mirror?

also the PAL error is an error with certain mainboards if there is not enough option rom.
you can try flashing it in another computer.

for files see
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index. ... #msg121129

[RAJOD]

can you create a stripe for testing instead of a mirror?
also the PAL error is an error with certain mainboards if there is not enough option rom.
you can try flashing it in another computer.
for files see
http://lime-technology.com/forum/index. ... #msg121129

Yes the flash worked on my old Dell. But still cant use drives.

I tried a single ZFS drive, single UFS and can't seem to get them to show up. I wish they would either work or not, this partially working thing is driving me nuts.

[b0ssman]

what do you mean by show up?

[RAJOD]

what do you mean by show up?

The drives Show up on the Disk management list. But I can't get a usable working drive to show up on the system status. It will just list "no drives configured"

I'm trying one more thing then I'm going to buy a 2TB WD red, I have a extra 2TB in a box that I can match it to. Then I am going to make a bonfire and throw these SAS drives in and roast some marshmallows.

[b0ssman]

what is the error when creating and mounting a ufs drive?

[b0ssman]

also which version of nas4free are you using?

[RAJOD]

also which version of nas4free are you using?

9.3.0.2 - Nayla (revision 1771)

But I can try version 10.xx if you think that might help.

[b0ssman]

first try this

http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=faq:0129

[RAJOD]

Here is one of the error on ufs format
kern.geom.debugflags: 0 -> 16
Deleting MBR and partition table...
dd: count: illegal numeric value
dd: oseek: illegal numeric value
Creating partition...
da0 created
da0p1 added
Creating filesystem with 'Soft Updates'...
newfs: wtfs: 520 bytes at sector 1923076868: Invalid argument
Created UFS file system:
dumpfs: /dev/da0p1: could not read superblock to fill out disk

[RAJOD]

first try this
http://wiki.nas4free.org/doku.php?id=faq:0129

I will give that a shot, I am doing a low level format of the drives right now. Changing to the sector size to one that I know is compatible with the controller. Its taking quite a long time per drive. Almost done.

If that fails I'll try the information on that link you provided. Thanks.

[b0ssman]

Here is one of the error on ufs format
kern.geom.debugflags: 0 -> 16
Deleting MBR and partition table...
dd: count: illegal numeric value
dd: oseek: illegal numeric value
Creating partition...
da0 created
da0p1 added
Creating filesystem with 'Soft Updates'...
newfs: wtfs: 520 bytes at sector 1923076868: Invalid argument
Created UFS file system:
dumpfs: /dev/da0p1: could not read superblock to fill out disk

ok this is something to go on.

those drives support the non standard block sizes of 520 524 and 528.
I bet nobody from the freebsd team has ever had to work with those values and they never thought about supporting them.

how you can change that i have no idea.
maybe send the seagate team a mail and ask.

[RAJOD]

Update:

Low lever format made ZERO difference, still a FAIL.

Going to home depot to buy kerosene for bonfire.

[apollo567]

Well perhaps try to swap the SAS Disks against SATA one, if you can return them

[RAJOD]

Well perhaps try to swap the SAS Disks against SATA one, if you can return them

I bought them off Amazon in Dec 2014, So don't think I can return them. I did go to Seagate and the serial numbers don't show up so I can't even register them under warranty.

Seagate Constellation ES 1 TB 7200 RPM SAS 2.0 6 GB/s 16 MB Cache 3.5-Inch Hard Drive - ST31000424SS
serial numbers
9WK204PM0000S108KXP8
9WK11CXY0000C040AHBB

I did look them up and it appears they are used in Dell 320 and other servers. I looked up one of the servers and they use Perc h310, 710s.

I found a cheap h310 on ebay, ordered it. Will hold off on bonfire till then.

If still a fail, I will try to trade them to seagate.