ZFS and 3ware controller resets

[Erik Stian Tefre]

On 09/25/2011 05:32 PM, Adam Nowacki wrote:
> I have a 20 disk storage system, every now and then a disk dies and
> causes 3ware controller to reset because of disk timeouts. This cuts out
> ZFS from all disks, even healthy ones and the system requires a hard reset.
> Two issues here:
> 1) Why the controller has to reset? Thats a completely insane way of
> dealing with drive timeout.
> 2) ZFS not reopening the disk after controller reset.
> 
> FreeBSD version: 8.1-RELEASE-p1
> 
> /c0 Driver Version = 3.80.06.003
> /c0 Model = 9650SE-16ML
> /c0 Available Memory = 224MB
> /c0 Firmware Version = FE9X 4.10.00.007
> /c0 Bios Version = BE9X 4.08.00.002
> /c0 Boot Loader Version = BL9X 3.08.00.001
[...]

I'd try upgrading from firmware 4.10.00.007 to the current stable
firmware 4.10.00.021. That seems to have solved similar controller
resets and OS/block device hangs for me on several servers.
Those servers are running Linux by the way, but if there's a weakness in
the old firmware I guess it may affect all operating systems. Take a
look at the .021 firmeare release notes. If I remember correctly I think
they mentioned better handling of this kind of drive events.

--
Erik