[zfs][hardware] Reproducible kernel panic in 8.0-STABLE

[Torsten Kersandt]

-----Original Message-----
From: Stephane LAPIE [mailto:stephane.lapie at darkbsd.org] 
Sent: 07 February 2010 16:27
To: Torsten Kersandt
Cc: freebsd-hardware at freebsd.org
Subject: Re: [zfs][hardware] Reproducible kernel panic in 8.0-STABLE

Torsten Kersandt wrote:
> Hi Stephane
> 
> I currently use some excellent cards from Supermicro, and these seem 
> to be the only 8 port PCIx and PCI-E available on the market running 
> on The marvel chipset.
> I would not use them for RAID but as SATA/SAS controllers very good.
> 
> Supermicro 8 Port SATA 2 Card (PCI/PCI-X) AOC-SAT2-MV8 Supermicro 
> AOC-SASLP-MV8, 8-Port (PCI-E)SAS/SATA Card
> 
> For about £80.00/USD130.00 each - not bad
> 
> Regards
> Torsten

Actually, I do have both cards.

I have been using them for one year now, and I can say this about both of
them :

-> Supermicro 8 Port SATA 2 Card (PCI/PCI-X) AOC-SAT2-MV8

This is what I am using right now, I have a server with two of them. 
It's chip is a Marvell MV88SX6081 8-port SATA II PCI-X Controller.

I had virtually nothing to say against this card while using it under
FreeBSD up to 7.2-STABLE, but it seems drive hotplug handling is truly
lacking in 8.X, though whether this is a problem on the card's side or on
some recent change in ATA handling on FreeBSD's side is lost on me.

But the current reality is that I am getting random kernel panics for what
seems to be ATA queue handling woes.

Also, re-detection of drives in BIOS seems to be utterly buggy, so the above
hotplug handling problem might be related to the hardware itself.

-> Supermicro AOC-SASLP-MV8, 8-Port (PCI-E)SAS/SATA Card

This controller does not have a driver for FreeBSD, as of 8.0-STABLE, and
documentation for it is not public. I have asked sam@ for advice and help on
obtaining documentation.

As an additional comment :

Plus, I tried it under Linux, and the mvsas driver available for it is less
than satisfying. Drive disconnection/hiccups handling is severely lacking,
and I busted several mdadm RAIDs while using this card in test machines,
upon "going over the speed limit" and losing all plugged in drives until
next reboot.

(To be fair, the SVN version of the mvsas driver is a little more stable,
but in a "I will only disconnect one drive at a time, so if you see one
drive going down, you'll have the time to shut down the RAID array" way.)

(As a result, I couldn't exactly say I am satisfied with Marvell on FreeBSD
so far. I am seriously considering going for Areca.)

Best regards,
--
Stephane LAPIE, EPITA SRS, Promo 2005
"Even when they have digital readouts, I can't understand them."
--MegaTokyo


Hi Stephane
I have been using 3ware cards prior 96xx  all along for the past 6 years on
FreeBSD --> 3ware 8xxx, 9500 and 9550 cards. 
I personally stayed away from PCI-E based cards from 3ware as they were
randomly loosing drives and rebuilding arrays as well (especially the 9660).

Another suggestion would be the Adaptec based cards 3xxx and 5xxx series.
I just installed 2 server on 8.0 using the Supermicro AOC-USAS-S4iR and the
AOC-USAS-S8i Adaptec 3405 based cards , not to mistaken for the LSI bases
cards.
Looks like Adaptec finally going to do some more supporting of BSD's, the
management is a bit of a pain but once you extract and start the ASM it's
fairly good, fast and stable. 
I was surprised myself :-).

LSI cards I found very clumsy to manage using the cli or web based
interface, not to mention the bios.
The above are all experiences I had with Raid Cards on FreeBSD since 5.2.

My Favourite is still 3ware 9550 for stability not speed and Areca was too
pricy.

Regards
Torsten