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S2600CO fails to boot Linux after MegaRAID RS25DB080 failure

NWalk2
Novice
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I have an Intel RS25DB080 installed in a S2600CO running Linux kernel 3.2.1 on Ubuntu 11.10. Installed in the system, I have a 6 drive RAID0 array running on a MegaRAID/RS25DB080. If I temporarily disconnect a SATA cable to one of the drives in the RAID array, causing the state of the drive go to "Unconfigured (bad)" and then reboot the motherboard then Linux fails to boot, getting stuck in initframfs.

Linux also fails to boot when I permanently disconnect one of the six drives.

If I disconnect all of the cables to the RS25DB080, then Linux boots and I can reconfigure the RAID array.

Is this the expected behavior? Is there a way I can boot Linux while the RAID array is down?

I am using version 06.505.02.00 of megaraid_sas.ko and I am using firmware build package 23.12.0-0013

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idata
Employee
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Neil,

That is expected behavior for a RAID 0 array. A RAID 0 splits data evenly across two or more disks (striped) without parity information for speed. RAID 0 provides no data redundancy. Any one drive failure results in a failed array that cannot be repaired.

Regards,

John

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NWalk2
Novice
484 Views

The disk containing Linux is not part of the RAID0 Array. Our Linux application mounts the RAID0 array after Linux has started.

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idata
Employee
484 Views

I didn't realize that Neil.

I am not that familiar with Linux, but it seems to me that your initframfs is depending on a module associated with the RAID 0 array that's prohibiting your root device discovery at boot time. What do your logs indicate?

It's doesn't seem to be a server board or RAID controller issue.

Regards,

John

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NWalk2
Novice
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John S: I potentially agree that it is not an S2600CO issue. I am more inclined to say the issue is either the LSI MegaRAID SAS Linux Driver or how the driver interacts with the RS25DB080. Can I get support for the driver from Intel?

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idata
Employee
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Neil,

All we've really got are RedHat* and SuSE* Linux* drivers for the RS25DB080. What kind of support are you looking for?

John

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NWalk2
Novice
484 Views

John:

I have 2 issues:

1) Linux fails to boot when I unplug one of the drives in a RAID0 implemented on the RS25DB08

2) sometimes one of the SSDs in the RAID0 will go offline without user intervention. When you run the megaCli -PDList -aAll command on the Linux shell, the state of the bad drive is "Firmware State: Unconfigured (bad)". If you rebuild the RAID array, the drive will be successfully incorporated into the RAID array, its Firmware state will be "Online, Spun Up" and the logical drive is usable again. You can remove the "bad" SSD drive and insert it into another machine and the drive functions normally. I have not been able to duplicate this problem. It has been reported from some of our customers though.

Have any of your other customers reported these problems?

Neil

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idata
Employee
484 Views

Neil,

I don't know how much I can help through the communities for this issue. You might want to contact http://www.intel.com/p/en_US/support/contactsupport Intel Support for further assistance.

John

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