ICH7 SATA RAID (LSI MegaRAID)

[Tamouh H.]

> 
> Hello!
> 
> I've bought a small server with Intel SE7230NH1 motherboard, 
> which incorporates the ICH7 SATA RAID controller. Using the 
> LSI BIOS utility, I created a RAID1 array of two disks and 
> installed FreeBSD 6.2-RC1
> (amd64) on it.
> 
> atapci1: <Intel ICH7 SATA300 controller> port 
> 0x30c8-0x30cf,0x30e4-0x30e7,0x30c0-0x30c7,0x30e0-0x30e3,0x30a0-0x30af
> mem 0x88200000-0x882003ff irq 19 at device 31.2 on pci0
> atapci1: AHCI Version 01.10 controller with 4 ports detected
> ata2: <ATA channel 0> on atapci1
> ata3: <ATA channel 1> on atapci1
> ata4: <ATA channel 2> on atapci1
> ata5: <ATA channel 3> on atapci1
> ad4: 476940MB <Seagate ST3500630AS 3.AAE> at ata2-master SATA300
> ad6: 476940MB <Seagate ST3500630AS 3.AAE> at ata3-master SATA300
> ar0: 476772MB <LSILogic v3 MegaRAID RAID1> status: READY
> ar0: disk0 READY (master) using ad4 at ata2-master
> ar0: disk1 READY (mirror) using ad6 at ata3-master
> 
> This server has a hot-swap drive cage that allows you to 
> power off individual drives. I simulated a drive failure by 
> powering off one of the drives. This resulted in console message:
> 
> ar0: warning: mirror protection lost. RAID1 array in DEGRADED mode.
> ar0: writing of LSILogic v3 MegaRAID metadata is NOT supported yet.
> subdisk6: detached
> ad6: detached
> 
> OK, the disk went away. This is witnessed by atacontrol:
> # atacontrol status ar0
> ar0: ATA RAID1 subdisks: ad4 DOWN status DEGRADED
> 
> Now, I power the disk on again. This brings on the following 
> console message.
> 
> ad6: 476940MB <Seagate ST3500630AS 3.AAE> at ata3-master SATA300
> 
> The array status is still degraded, as shown by atacontrol:
> #atacontrol status ar0
> ar0: ATA RAID1 subdisks: ad4 ad6 status: DEGRADED
> 
> OK, so I think I need to rebuild the array, but this doesn't succeed:
> #atacontrol rebuild ar0
> IOCATARAIDREBUILD: Input/Output error.
> 
> When I reboot the server, it comes back up with the array at 
> READY status immediately. Maybe this is because I have "Auto 
> rebuild" set to "Yes" in BIOS. But is there any way to 
> recover from this kind of failure without rebooting? Are my 
> problems caused merely by the fact that "writing of LSILogic 
> v3 MegaRAID metadata is NOT supported yet", or am I doing 
> something wrong? Or maybe this is the problem that exists only in
> amd64 version and not in i386?
> 
> Thanks in advance,
> --
> Toomas
> 

>From experience, with these Software RAID, once you remove a disk, you'll have to format it before you put the disk back in. Otherwise, this will cause problems as the SW RAID will read the RAID part from the disk and think it is working properly.

Do your test by removing the Disk, then format it completely, insert it back. Or plug a new HDD in its place.

Tamouh