6 ultra320 scsi drives

2 73.6GB
4 300GB

the scsi controller is an integrated LSI 1030, the server is an ibm x345 51R

the controller will only do hardware raid 1

i set that up w/ the two 73GB drives. the second drive sits there indefinitely saying "out of sync"

fedora doesn't see the controller at all when hardware raid is enabled... doesn't even see the 4 non-array disks

if i delete the array and just have it present straight scsi targets, it sees all 6 disks.


a) why is the second drive constantly out of sync? i tried a low level format on both drives, it's doing the same thing. i swapped drives, the problem is consistently in the bottom slot (secondary mirror) no matter what drive i'm using

b) how can i get the drives to show up in fedora or RHEL while hardware raid is enabled? i KNOW fedora has mptscsi built in... so it should work...


also, it's got the latest bios which (according to ibm) has the latest scsi fw/bios as well... i tried updating with LSI's utility but it wouldn't flash it...

4/14/2008 11:01:49 AM

come on, SOMEONE has to know SOMETHING about this

4/14/2008 3:25:55 PM

wish I could help you fix the hardware problem, but :shrug:

why not just use software raid?

does fedora just say you don't have any drives? does it ask you to select a driver?

ibm x3455? https://hardware.redhat.com/list.cgi?product=Red+Hat+Hardware+Certification&quicksearch=x345
IBM claims it's certified

4/14/2008 10:14:47 PM

evan, I believe you should do some consulting with my work place soon.

i need somebody to help me build some redundancy and a very good backup solution. that scare the other night scared the fucking shit out of me and i honestly don't have the time right now to figure out the best options (I do sales mainly, used to do IT but not much anymore)...

4/14/2008 11:25:01 PM

Quote :

"why not just use software raid? "

because it's much slower and can't do hotswapping

Quote :

"does fedora just say you don't have any drives? does it ask you to select a driver? "

it says it couldn't find any drives. it doesn't ask to select a driver. but it doesn't even see the non-array disks, and they should just be presented as plain old scsi targets...

Quote :

"ibm x3455?"

no. ibm x series 345 model 51R

Quote :

"evan, I believe you should do some consulting with my work place soon."

pm sent.

4/15/2008 12:17:01 AM

find the manual for the raid card.

4/15/2008 8:27:03 AM

Quote :

"i set that up w/ the two 73GB drives. the second drive sits there indefinitely saying "out of sync""

How long is "indefinitely?" Synchronization normally takes 1-3 hours. Let it sit overnight if you haven't done so already.

Quote :

"fedora doesn't see the controller at all when hardware raid is enabled... doesn't even see the 4 non-array disks"

What SCSI drivers are you using? More than likely you'll need to go to IBM's support site and download drivers. I doubt they are testing that adapter with anything other than Red Hat and SuSE, but you might find something that will work. If not, hit up LSI's website and look for a controller with the same chipset. The drivers for it will probably work.

Also, put the latest firmware on the controller if they have an update on their support site and make sure you're using the latest version of ServeRaid Manager.

I'd find the updates for you, but the support page is flaking out for me.
http://www.ibm.com/products/finder/us/finders?pg=ddfinder&cm_re=other-_-suprcn-_-download

Select "System X" followed by "x345" and go from there.

[Edited on April 15, 2008 at 3:28 PM. Reason : s]

4/15/2008 3:26:19 PM

indefinitely means it's been going for 3 days now

and as far as drivers go, this is the fedora install... how would you add storage drivers to the install without recompiling the kernel?

fedora = RHEL. it should work. they're forked from the same tree - that's what's confusing me. i'll grab a RHEL disc from work and try it tonight.

i covered firmware updates in my first post - IBM's utility says it's up to date - LSI has an update for the chip the controller is based on, but their update utility won't update the chip...

the card is an LSI card, not a serveRAID controller - adaptec makes IBM's serveRAID controllers.

4/15/2008 7:38:26 PM

Quote :

"indefinitely means it's been going for 3 days now"

Yeah, that's a problem.

Quote :

"and as far as drivers go, this is the fedora install... how would you add storage drivers to the install without recompiling the kernel? fedora = RHEL. it should work. they're forked from the same tree - that's what's confusing me. i'll grab a RHEL disc from work and try it tonight."

K. I'll admit that I don't follow Lunix stuff. In any case, I have installed storage drivers during Red Hat installs more times than I care to recall. If Fedora is locked down then you have a problem. The drive sync problem is just weird, but I'd bet your OS installation problems are driver related. If that means recompiling your kernel then so be it.

Quote :

"the card is an LSI card, not a serveRAID controller - adaptec makes IBM's serveRAID controllers."

Adaptec made all the early ServeRaid controllers, but that hasn't been the case as of late. The ServeRaid MR10i, MR10k, and MR10M all use an LSI chipset.

I do believe ServeRaid Manager can talk to the onboard LSI chip. IBM made a big push to standardize it's disk management a few years ago and I think the newer versions of SRManager will talk to just about anything. It wouldn't hurt to boot to a SRManager disk and see if it is more successful in creating the mirror.

4/15/2008 11:19:26 PM

I take that back...I think IBM actually made the earliest ServeRaid controllers using Intel Zion (yes Zion, not Xeon) and PowerPC chips.

4/16/2008 12:03:19 AM

Quote :

"because it's much slower and can't do hotswapping"

it may be a bit slower, but it does hostswapping. We wouldn't call it raid otherwise.

Quote :

"it says it couldn't find any drives. it doesn't ask to select a driver. but it doesn't even see the non-array disks, and they should just be presented as plain old scsi targets..."

if you set up the hardware raid as one array, and there's a problem with the array, then the software won't see the drive, and it certainly won't see the individual drives because they're not presented that way. Turn off the hardware raid if you want it to see all of the drives

Quote :

"and as far as drivers go, this is the fedora install... how would you add storage drivers to the install without recompiling the kernel?"

'linux dd' at the install boot prompt

4/16/2008 11:50:47 AM