gmirror problem with HP Proliant ML110 G5

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Fri, Apr 18, 2008 at 07:12:06AM +0200, Gianni wrote:
> On 17/apr/08, at 19:28, Josep Pujadas i Jubany wrote:
>> Two weeks ago I installed FreeBSD 7.0 in a new HP Proliant ML110 G5 
>> machine
>> and I configured ad0 for using gmirror, waiting for a second disk.
>>
>> I just added a second hard disk arrived today from HP ...
>>
>> # gmirror insert gm0 /dev/ad2
>>
>> I'm having DMA errors:
>>
>> Apr 17 16:49:55 mail_2 kernel: GEOM_MIRROR: Device gm0: rebuilding 
>> provider
>> ad2.
>> Apr 17 16:50:13 mail_2 kernel: ad2: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (1 retry
>> left) LBA=1534720
>> Apr 17 16:50:46 mail_2 kernel: ad2: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (1 retry
>> left) LBA=4563840
>> ...
>> ...
>> Apr 17 17:39:28 mail_2 kernel: ad2: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (1 retry
>> left) LBA=268281088
>> Apr 17 17:39:46 mail_2 kernel: ad2: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA48 retrying (1 
>> retry
>> left) LBA=269601536
>> Apr 17 17:39:46 mail_2 kernel: ad2: FAILURE - WRITE_DMA48
>> status=51<READY,DSC,ERROR> error=10<NID_NOT_FOUND> LBA=269601536
>> Apr 17 17:39:46 mail_2 kernel: GEOM_MIRROR: Synchronization request failed
>> (error=5). ad2[WRITE(offset=138035986432, length=131072)]
>> Apr 17 17:39:46 mail_2 kernel: GEOM_MIRROR: Device gm0: provider ad2
>> disconnected.
>> Apr 17 17:39:46 mail_2 kernel: GEOM_MIRROR: Device gm0: rebuilding 
>> provider
>> ad2 stopped.
>>
>> Disks are equal in capactiy:
>>
>> Apr 17 16:40:48 mail_2 kernel: ad0: 238475MB <Seagate ST3250620NS 3BJP> at
>> ata0-master SATA150
>> Apr 17 16:40:48 mail_2 kernel: ad2: 238475MB <GB0250C8045 HPG1> at ata1-
>> master SATA150
>>
>> # atacontrol list
>>
>> ATA channel 0:
>> Master:  ad0 <ST3250620NS/3BJP> Serial ATA v1.0
>> Slave:       no device present
>> ATA channel 1:
>> Master:  ad2 <GB0250C8045/HPG1> Serial ATA v1.0
>> Slave:       no device present
>> ATA channel 2:
>> Master: acd0 <HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H60L/E904> Serial ATA v1.0
>> Slave:       no device present
>> ATA channel 3:
>> Master:      no device present
>> Slave:       no device present
>>
>> Any ideas? Thanks,
>>
>> Josep Pujadas

Josep, the disks may be the same in capacity, but they aren't completely
identical.  It's fairly obvious one is a Seagate and the other is
HP/Compaq drive.

This is very likely **not** the cause of the DMA errors you're seeing,
but I did want to take a moment to state that mix-matching drives with
different semantics in a mirror is somewhat risky.

> There are a few reports of this on the freebsd-stable mailing list in March 
> and I'm also experiencing the same problem, so far none of the suggested 
> resolutions has helped for me.
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-stable/2008-March/thread.html
>
> I've got the issue on a custom built box with amd64 + 7.0 + gmirror and 
> I've got a Proliant ML110 G5 running 6.3 I'd like to upgrade to 7.0 but too 
> scared to do so until this issue appears to have been identified and fixed.
> Copying in freebsd-stable as it's not just a problem on Proliant.
> -Gianni

I've documented the DMA problem quite thoroughly.  The DMA errors are
not specific to gmirror:

http://wiki.freebsd.org/JeremyChadwick/Commonly_reported_issues

If the problem is easily repeatable, and you have serial console
available on the box, please contact Scott Long who has offered to help
track the source of these problems down.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                    jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                           http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                      Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.                  PGP: 4BD6C0CB |