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

[Carroll Kong]

Got the 3Ware 7450's firmware upgraded.  Swapped out the one maxtor disk
that showed some errors, reran the smartctl -t long tests and made sure
every disk succeeded.  The box still randomly hangs and it looks strongly
like it is I/O related.

I wonder if my controller itself is bad.  I am about ready to give up on
this setup.  Problem is swapping out the card means a new riser card, well
at least in theory to handle the 64 bit / 66 mhz issue with risers that
3ware has.  Or I can trust 3ware's tech support that all new cards are
already fixed.  Heh.  Or we can watch as nothing else is fixed.  Or maybe
it's the interconnects, (cold swap ATA backplane) but I do not see how that
should lead to a full fledged I/O hang error.


twe0: <3ware Storage Controller driver ver. 1.40.01.002> port 0xc800-0xc80f
mem 0xfe000000-0xfe7fffff,0xfeaffc00-0xfeaffc0f irq 2 at
 device 7.0 on pci1
twe0: 4 ports, Firmware FE7X 1.05.00.068, BIOS BE7X 1.08.00.048



- Carroll Kong
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carroll Kong" <me at carrollkong.com>
To: "Anton Ivanov" <ai1 at ipaccess.com>; <freebsd-stable at freebsd.org>
Cc: "Jason Thomson" <jason.thomson at mintel.com>
Sent: Monday, September 13, 2004 11:57 PM
Subject: Re: 3ware 7506, FreeBSD 4.x, Maxtor Disks & SMART Problems.


> One of the maxtor disks at the colocation with the 3ware card was failing
to
> complete it's long tests with read errors.  This is inline with Jason's
> postings about how maxtor disk errors can cause a total I/O hang.  Note,
> this is the start of a disk failure, not a total disk failure.
>
> The bus issues do not affect us at all, or they should not  I have a freak
> of nature 7450 card which is a 64bit/33 mhz card and no longer available.
> The issue only affects 66 mhz and riser card users.
>
> The bus issues were noted and documented in 3ware's advisories.  Depending
> on when you purchased your card and if it is running at 66 mhz or not.
>
> http://www.3ware.com/KB/kb.asp
> https://www.3ware.com/kbadmin/attachments/TM900-0045-00%20Rev%20A_P.pdf
>
> General idea is the older runs of the 3ware card does not handle high
speed
> timings well which was a big problem with riser cards + 66 mhz
combinations.
> You can purchase a special riser card from
>
> www.adexelec.com
>
> PCITX8-3R
>
> This riser card was specially designed by Adex to help resolve 3ware's
known
> issue.  Any new 3ware cards should not experience this issue.
>
> Unfortunately, this issue is not the same as mine, but I hope this
> information helps you.  (consider purchasing the special PCI riser card
with
> additional resistors).
>
>
>
> - Carroll Kong