P410i & JBOD

[Nicolas S.]

Hello,

I'm running Solaris 10u8 on a DL380G6 with 8 disks :
- 2*146G in RAID1 as a system disk
- 6*500G to store data

I want to use 500G disks in a raidZ fashion, and I need the system to see the "independently".

I tried to create several logical drives, using hpacucli but It refuses to create more than 2 arrays :


=> pd all show

Smart Array P410i in Slot 0

array A

physicaldrive 1I:1:1 (port 1I:box 1:bay 1, SAS, 146 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 1I:1:2 (port 1I:box 1:bay 2, SAS, 146 GB, OK)

array B

physicaldrive 1I:1:3 (port 1I:box 1:bay 3, SAS, 500 GB, OK)

unassigned

physicaldrive 1I:1:4 (port 1I:box 1:bay 4, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:5 (port 2I:box 1:bay 5, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:6 (port 2I:box 1:bay 6, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:7 (port 2I:box 1:bay 7, SAS, 500 GB, OK)
physicaldrive 2I:1:8 (port 2I:box 1:bay 8, SAS, 500 GB, OK)

=> create type=ld drives=1I:1:4

Error: This operation is not supported with the current configuration. Use the
"show" command on devices to show additional details about the
configuration.

Am I missing something in the docs ? Is there a JBOD mode available ?

Thanks !

[Michal Kapalka (mikap)]

hi,

i think, its not possible, but in your situation i would call to HP, if there is some hack hw to do it. ( maybe a new firmware... )

JBOD is very well to use for ZFS.

mikap

[TTr]

JBOD (or raid bypass, or passthrough mode) is not available in the P410i. The workaround is to create one raid0 array with one in each one. Create a single LUN in each array that spans the whole disk. Then in solaris, each logical disk would reflect back to one physical disk.

Why do you want to use software based raid (Solaris OS) instead of hardware raid (P410i). The P410i is a powerful controller and can do decent i/o. If you create raidz, the OS would be putting significant load on the CPU to support the raidz functionality.

[TTr]

> The workaround is to create one raid0 array with one in each one.

The above should read:

The workaround is to create one raid0 array with one *disk* in each one.

[Nicolas S.]

It's exactly what I tried to do but the admin utilities (tried hpucali & smartstart CD) do not let me create a third array, could you point me how to do this ?

I need ZFS for its functionnalities (quotas, reservations, iscsi, ...) & ease of administration

[TTr]

There should be no such limitation on the number of arrays. That would almost render the 410i useless. I am not sure if there is a limitation on the bios and cli utilities. Do you have the latest firmware everywhere?

Try specifying the raid type on the command line. It may be defaulting to raid1 or something else which is not possible with just one drive.
ctrl slot=0 create type=ld drives=1I:1:4 raid=0

[Nicolas S.]

Yes, latest firmware. I already tried specifying the raid type, same error. My vendor sends me a guy from HP, I'll post results of his intervention.

[Nicolas S.]

Adding a battery + RAM to the card solved it.

Thanks for help

[Nicolas S.]

.