3ware 7506, FreeBSD 4.x, Maxtor Disks & SMART Problems.

so14k at so14k.com so14k at so14k.com
Mon Jun 14 12:52:56 GMT 2004


> We have a number of FreeBSD boxes with 7506 series 3ware controllers
> (about 10 and about to buy 10 more).  We are generally happy with the
> performance and reliability,  but we have a few intermittent,  recurring
> problems.
>
> With some of our boxes we are using 300GB / 320GB Maxtor Maxline II disks.
>
> Occasionally,  a machine with these disks will lock up hard;  the 3ware
> controller has stopped responding.  After taking the machine offline,
> and using MAXTOR PowerMax tools to analyse the disks,  it becomes clear
> that one of the disks has errors.
>
> I have suspicions that the Maxtor disks are raising SMART events that
> are not handled by the FreeBSD 3ware twe driver.
>
> Is this a plausible explanation?
>
> Is anyone else aware of this issue,  and is there anything we can do to
> solve / work around this problem?
>
> (We've tried disabling SMART on the disks - but the 7506 card re-enables
> it).
>
>
>
> More information:
>
> This is happening on at least 3 machines.
>
> The first time it happened,  we upgraded to FreeBSD 4.10-PRERELEASE
> (cvsupped May 4th).  This uses the 3ware imported drivers.  (We also
> applied the stability patch posted to the Stable list in a bout of straw
> clutching).
>
> We have since seen the same problem on two additional machines (running
> 4.9-STABLE from Feb 2nd and April 4th).  We haven't yet upgraded these
> machines - might do soon.
>
> I have sent an email to support at 3ware.com - no response yet - but I only
> sent it last Friday.

IIRC, the ATA driver in 4.x (pre ATAng) doesn't support S.M.A.R.T.
Unfortunately you'll need to run 5.2-CURRENT for that.


Regards,
Brad Davis


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