# How to monitor hardware raid



## woodson2 (Jun 5, 2009)

I just installed FreeBSd 7.2 on a Dell T100 poweredge server with 2 500GB SATA drives. The server has the sas6ir RAID controller card. The OS appears to recognize the controller card as the OS only sees one 500GB disk. My question is this...how can i be sure that the RAID is functioning properly and/or how can I monitor the RAID device? I'm new to FreeBSD so forgive me if this is a simple question.


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## woodson2 (Jun 5, 2009)

OK, so after poking around dmesg confirms that RAID 1 is enabled and both disks are healthy..So I guess I just need to know how to detect a disk failure...I guess I could grep for mpt in /var/log/messages each day and send myself the output.....Any ideas?

```
dmesg|grep mpt
mpt0: <LSILogic SAS/SATA Adapter> port 0xec00-0xecff mem 0xdfdec000-0xdfdeffff,0xdfdf0000-0xdfdfffff irq 16 at device 0.0 on pci1
mpt0: [ITHREAD]
mpt0: MPI Version=1.5.18.0
mpt0: Capabilities: ( RAID-0 RAID-1E RAID-1 )
mpt0: 1 Active Volume (2 Max)
mpt0: 2 Hidden Drive Members (14 Max)
mpt0:vol0(mpt0:0:0): Settings ( Member-WCE Hot-Plug-Spares High-Priority-ReSync )
mpt0:vol0(mpt0:0:0): Using Spare Pool: 0
mpt0:vol0(mpt0:0:0): 2 Members:
      (mpt0:1:8:0): Primary Online
      (mpt0:1:1:0): Secondary Online
mpt0:vol0(mpt0:0:0): RAID-1 - Optimal
mpt0:vol0(mpt0:0:0): Status ( Enabled )
(mpt0:vol0:1): Physical (mpt0:0:1:0), Pass-thru (mpt0:1:0:0)
(mpt0:vol0:1): Online
(mpt0:vol0:0): Physical (mpt0:0:8:0), Pass-thru (mpt0:1:1:0)
(mpt0:vol0:0): Online
da0 at mpt0 bus 0 target 0 lun 0
```


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## woodson2 (Jun 5, 2009)

*Bueller?*

Wow, no one has used a RAID card with freeBSD before?..Anyone...Bueller?


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## phoenix (Jun 5, 2009)

There are a couple of LSI Logic RAID management tools available in the ports tree.  See *ls -dl /usr/ports/sysutils/*mega** for the list.  Which one works with your RAID controller is anyone's guess (we stopped using LSI products many many many years ago as they are crap, crap, and more crap piled on top).


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## woodson2 (Jun 5, 2009)

phoenix said:
			
		

> There are a couple of LSI Logic RAID management tools available in the ports tree.  See *ls -dl /usr/ports/sysutils/*mega** for the list.  Which one works with your RAID controller is anyone's guess (we stopped using LSI products many many many years ago as they are crap, crap, and more crap piled on top).



Thanks for your help...I did notice that there were plenty of negative comments on the net in regards to the LSI cards with respect to unix/linux. Apparently 3Ware is the way to go?


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## phoenix (Jun 5, 2009)

For the higher-end of things, 3Ware and Areca have the best Unix support in general, and FreeBSD support specifically.  Both employee developers who do nothing but FreeBSD support.  They offer updated drivers on their website, and the drivers are also shipped as part of FreeBSD.

Depending on which reviews you read, 3Ware is faster than Areca, and Areca is faster than 3Ware.  

I've only used 3Ware controllers, as the Areca were too expensive when we started out.  The 3Ware controllers have very nice, easy-to-use BIOS config tools, as well as a web-based management tool (3dm2, in the ports tree).

I have no experience with middle-of-the-road RAID controllers (like Highpoint, Promise, Adaptec, etc) so can't comment on those.

We used LSI MegaRAID SATA RAID controllers a couple years ago, and they left a *very* bad impression on us.  We returned a whole bunch, and just scrapped the ones we couldn't return.


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## woodson2 (Jun 5, 2009)

"We used LSI MegaRAID SATA RAID controllers a couple years ago, and they left a *very* bad impression on us. We returned a whole bunch, and just scrapped the ones we couldn't return."



Can you tell me more specifically what problems you ran into with the LSI cards?


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## woodson2 (Jun 5, 2009)

*mptutil and mptd*

I was able to find two utilities that do exactly what I need for the mpt driver.

For those interested so can grab the files at the link below..Both compiled on release 7.2 without any problems..

http://perforce.freebsd.org/depotTreeBrowser.cgi?FSPC=//depot/user/jhb/raid&HIDEDEL=NO


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## phoenix (Jun 9, 2009)

woodson2 said:
			
		

> "We used LSI MegaRAID SATA RAID controllers a couple years ago, and they left a *very* bad impression on us. We returned a whole bunch, and just scrapped the ones we couldn't return."
> 
> Can you tell me more specifically what problems you ran into with the LSI cards?



Very, very, very poor data throughput.  Drive dropping off the controller.  Running an array verify would bring the server to a grinding halt.  Incompatibilities with riser cards used in 2U rackmount servers (didn't matter if it was the el-cheapo one that came with the case, or a Tyan one specifically for the motherboard).  Lack of useable management tools for Linux/FreeBSD (the mega* tools are a joke compared to 3dm2 or even the BIOS config tool for 3Ware).

These were the LSI MegaRAID 150-something, 8-port SATA controllers, PCI-X format.  We bought them along with our first batch of servers, and then promptly returned a batch of them, and replaced them all with 3Ware controllers.


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