3ware hardware raid support?

[Harald Dunkel-3]

Hi folks,

Are the more recent 3ware raid controllers supported, e.g.
the 3Ware 9650SE series? Its not mentioned on the compatibility
list or in the current man page, but maybe (hopefully) it is out
of date?


Regards

Harri

[L. V. Lammert]

At 04:54 PM 9/11/2008 +0200, Harald Dunkel wrote:
>Hi folks,
>
>Are the more recent 3ware raid controllers supported, e.g.
>the 3Ware 9650SE series? Its not mentioned on the compatibility
>list or in the current man page, but maybe (hopefully) it is out
>of date?

The only 3ware support is for legacy controllers - they refuse to release
any documentation on their h/w.

         Lee

[Ryan Corder-3]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 04:54:59PM +0200, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> Are the more recent 3ware raid controllers supported, e.g.
> the 3Ware 9650SE series? Its not mentioned on the compatibility
> list or in the current man page, but maybe (hopefully) it is out
> of date?

Let me share with you my recent (expensive) experiment.

I bought a server that had a 9650SE in it thinking that it would work with
4.3.  I assumed this, incorrectly, based on the fact that the 9550 just
happened to work with 4.2.  Seems the changes were much bigger than just a
model number bump.

The thing is, the 9550 is NOT supported, it just happened to still work with
the twe driver.

So, after two more RAID card purchases, I finally landed with an Areca card
and am _incredibly_ happy with it.  Fast, Simple, and very compatible -- and
the arc(4) driver is hooked into bio(4), even better!

One caveat though regarding the Areca cards, I initially bought an ARC-1200
based on the following line in the arc(4) man page:
  - ARC-1200 Rev A PCI Express 2 Port SATA RAID Controller
but watch out, the Rev B is the only one you can find anymore.  Seems only a
minor revision but enought to through 4.3 for a loop.

I subsequently bought an ARC-1210 and sent my ARC-1200 Rev B to the devs.

The moral of the story is to never, ever, ever buy 3ware.  They are a
tight-lipped, closed-up company that is unwilling to work with the Open Source
community.  To top it all off, their cards aren't really all that great.
There are just is good (and better) hardware out there from better companies
that are similarly priced.

cheers.
ryanc

[Harald Dunkel-3]

Hi Ryan and Lee,

I highly appreciate your response. Just in time before purchase.


Many thanx

Harri
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ryan Corder wrote:

> On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 04:54:59PM +0200, Harald Dunkel wrote:
>> Are the more recent 3ware raid controllers supported, e.g.
>> the 3Ware 9650SE series? Its not mentioned on the compatibility
>> list or in the current man page, but maybe (hopefully) it is out
>> of date?
>
> Let me share with you my recent (expensive) experiment.
>
> I bought a server that had a 9650SE in it thinking that it would work with
> 4.3.  I assumed this, incorrectly, based on the fact that the 9550 just
> happened to work with 4.2.  Seems the changes were much bigger than just a
> model number bump.
>
> The thing is, the 9550 is NOT supported, it just happened to still work with
> the twe driver.
>
> So, after two more RAID card purchases, I finally landed with an Areca card
> and am _incredibly_ happy with it.  Fast, Simple, and very compatible -- and
> the arc(4) driver is hooked into bio(4), even better!
>
> One caveat though regarding the Areca cards, I initially bought an ARC-1200
> based on the following line in the arc(4) man page:
>   - ARC-1200 Rev A PCI Express 2 Port SATA RAID Controller
> but watch out, the Rev B is the only one you can find anymore.  Seems only a
> minor revision but enought to through 4.3 for a loop.
>
> I subsequently bought an ARC-1210 and sent my ARC-1200 Rev B to the devs.
>
> The moral of the story is to never, ever, ever buy 3ware.  They are a
> tight-lipped, closed-up company that is unwilling to work with the Open Source
> community.  To top it all off, their cards aren't really all that great.
> There are just is good (and better) hardware out there from better companies
> that are similarly priced.
>
> cheers.
> ryanc

[jared r r spiegel]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2008 at 10:05:27AM -0700, Ryan Corder wrote:

> So, after two more RAID card purchases, I finally landed with an Areca card
> and am _incredibly_ happy with it.  Fast, Simple, and very compatible -- and
> the arc(4) driver is hooked into bio(4), even better!

  we have an areca 1100 in our server that we chose to purchase solely on the
  following:

http://marc.info/?l=openbsd-misc&m=115570693003257&w=2

  the bios UI functions ok over simple serial consoles.

  using the card in openbsd has been very pain free, and i recall sending
  areca a feedback letting them know the reasons i got the card and my
  satisfaction with it (giving this type of feedback seems to be very valuable)
  and my appreciation for what i perceive as them having chosen to spend
  their time and resources on being awesome to the openbsd developers
  and thus, by extension, the userbase.

  my first-hand experience with individuals in areca's support also
  have been very positive.

--

  jared

[Harald Dunkel-3]

Hi Ryan,

Ryan Corder wrote:
>
> So, after two more RAID card purchases, I finally landed with an Areca card
> and am _incredibly_ happy with it.  Fast, Simple, and very compatible -- and
> the arc(4) driver is hooked into bio(4), even better!
>

AFAICS the arc-1210 comes with a fan. Is there an integration
with sensorsd?


Regards

Harri

[Ryan Corder-3]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 03:12:29PM +0200, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> AFAICS the arc-1210 comes with a fan. Is there an integration
> with sensorsd?

Not as of 4.3.  The only thing I get related to my ARC-1210 out of
sensors is:

    hw.sensors.arc0.drive0=online (sd0), OK

I would also like to help with getting some more information out of
bio(4) and bioctl(8):

    (31)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -qv sd0
    sd0: <Areca, ARC-1210-VOL#00, R001>, serial 0000000008166335
    (32)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -a get sd0
    bioctl: BIOCALARM: Inappropriate ioctl for device

Not sure where to start with this one.

[Henning Brauer]

* Ryan Corder <ryanc@...> [2008-09-15 21:31]:

> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 03:12:29PM +0200, Harald Dunkel wrote:
> > AFAICS the arc-1210 comes with a fan. Is there an integration
> > with sensorsd?
>
> Not as of 4.3.  The only thing I get related to my ARC-1210 out of
> sensors is:
>
>     hw.sensors.arc0.drive0=online (sd0), OK
>
> I would also like to help with getting some more information out of
> bio(4) and bioctl(8):
>
>     (31)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -qv sd0
>     sd0: <Areca, ARC-1210-VOL#00, R001>, serial 0000000008166335
>     (32)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -a get sd0
>     bioctl: BIOCALARM: Inappropriate ioctl for device
>
> Not sure where to start with this one.

maybe by reading the bioctl manpage? your bioctl usage is completely
off. way off.
(ok, I give you a treaty: bioctl arc0)


--
Henning Brauer, hb@..., henning@...
BS Web Services, http://bsws.de
Full-Service ISP - Secure Hosting, Mail and DNS Services
Dedicated Servers, Rootservers, Application Hosting - Hamburg & Amsterdam

[Ryan Corder-3]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 09:41:42PM +0200, Henning Brauer wrote:
| maybe by reading the bioctl manpage? your bioctl usage is completely
| off. way off.
| (ok, I give you a treaty: bioctl arc0)

Fair enough, being a bad user is no excuse.  This got my alarm reporting, but
what is with the error?

    (19)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -a get arc0
    alarm is currently enabled
    (20)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -v arc0
    Volume  Status               Size Device  
     arc0 0 Online       249999917056 sd0     RAID1
    bioctl: BIOCDISK: Input/output error
    (21)ryanc@rigel ~ $

Same behavior if I run it as root directly rather than via sudo.

thanks.
ryanc

[Jonathan Gray]

On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 02:05:48PM -0700, Ryan Corder wrote:

> On Mon, Sep 15, 2008 at 09:41:42PM +0200, Henning Brauer wrote:
> | maybe by reading the bioctl manpage? your bioctl usage is completely
> | off. way off.
> | (ok, I give you a treaty: bioctl arc0)
>
> Fair enough, being a bad user is no excuse.  This got my alarm reporting, but
> what is with the error?
>
>     (19)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -a get arc0
>     alarm is currently enabled
>     (20)ryanc@rigel ~ $ sudo bioctl -v arc0
>     Volume  Status               Size Device  
>      arc0 0 Online       249999917056 sd0     RAID1
>     bioctl: BIOCDISK: Input/output error
>     (21)ryanc@rigel ~ $
>
> Same behavior if I run it as root directly rather than via sudo.
>
> thanks.
> ryanc

This sounds like the new firmware, but I can't see a dmesg
from you to figure out if this is the case for sure.

The newer firmwares behave slightly differently, but should
report things in bioctl properly with 4.4 and -current.

[Ryan Corder-3]

On Tue, Sep 16, 2008 at 09:10:48AM +1000, Jonathan Gray wrote:
| This sounds like the new firmware, but I can't see a dmesg
| from you to figure out if this is the case for sure.

arc0 at pci2 dev 14 function 0 "Areca ARC-1210" rev 0x00: apic 2 int 18 (irq 5)
arc0: 4 ports, 256MB SDRAM, firmware V1.44 2008-2-1
scsibus0 at arc0: 16 targets
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <Areca, ARC-1210-VOL#00, R001> SCSI3 0/direct fixed
sd0: 238418MB, 50862 cyl, 20 head, 480 sec, 512 bytes/sec, 488281088 sec total

| The newer firmwares behave slightly differently, but should
| report things in bioctl properly with 4.4 and -current.

That's what I figured.

thanks.
ryanc