Marvell SATA status
Hi,
I need to decide whether to add an additional 3ware SATA RAID adapter to a server or to utilise the onboard Marvell SATA RAID adapter (preferred). The Marvell driver (2.6.15.1) is "highly experimental" and I see no traffic mentioning this driver since Sept last year... I was wondering what the current status is. If it's still alive I'm obviously offering to help debug it...
cheers,
Jan
Quoted 11 lines · Jan Bakuwel
Hi,
I need to decide whether to add an additional 3ware SATA RAID adapter to a server or to utilise the onboard Marvell SATA RAID adapter (preferred). The Marvell driver (2.6.15.1) is "highly experimental" and I see no traffic mentioning this driver since Sept last year... I was wondering what the current status is. If it's still alive I'm obviously offering to help debug it...
cheers,
Jan
Jan,
I believe that driver is discussed on the libata (or sata) list ([email protected]), not the scsi list.
A status message was just posted there saying at least one of the Marvell SATA controllers is marked "highly experimental" for a reason, but please post feedback as it is still being worked on.
Greg
--
Greg Freemyer
The Norcross Group
Forensics for the 21st Century
Quoted 4 lines · Jan Bakuwel
Hi,
I need to decide whether to add an additional 3ware SATA RAID adapter to a server or to utilise the onboard Marvell SATA RAID adapter
Note that the Marvell chip is not RAID. See http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html
Quoted 4 lines
(preferred). The Marvell driver (2.6.15.1) is "highly experimental" and I see no traffic mentioning this driver since Sept last year... I was wondering what the current status is. If it's still alive I'm obviously offering to help debug it...
You will have better luck on the linux-ide list, though there admittedly aren't a lot of sata_mv hackers.
Patches are certainly welcome. sata_mv needs some more errata workarounds before it could be said to be ready for production.
Jeff
Hoi Jeff,
Quoted 1 line
Note that the Marvell chip is not RAID. See http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html
The Marvell chip isn't listed on that page unless my eye sight is deterioting :-)
The BIOS identifies it as an Adaptec HostRAID 6041 controller (?), allows for setting up the arrays etc, however, 'lspci -vv' identifies it as a Marvell Technology MV88SX6041 RAID controller.
It could indeed be software RAID by controller, but as far as the OS is concerned the controller presents the array to the OS as a single disc...
Quoted 1 line
You will have better luck on the linux-ide list, though there admittedly aren't a lot of
sata_mvhackers.
Will have a look there too, thanks.
Quoted 1 line
Patches are certainly welcome.
sata_mvneeds some more errata workarounds before it could be said to be ready for production.
The current driver doesn't work:
sys1:~# dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sdb bs=1 count=1 1+0 records in 1+0 records out 1 bytes transferred in 61.346053 seconds (0 bytes/sec) sys1:~#
So it does recognise the drive but nothing else happens.
I certainly won't be able to complete the driver by myself... so if there's little interest in it my only option would be to use the 3ware controller...
Thanks for your help,
Jan
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Quoted 6 lines · Jan Bakuwel
Hoi Jeff,
Quoted 1 line
Note that the Marvell chip is not RAID. See http://linux.yyz.us/sata/faq-sata-raid.html
The Marvell chip isn't listed on that page unless my eye sight is deterioting :-)
Yes but you get the general point.
Quoted 1 line
The BIOS identifies it as an Adaptec HostRAID 6041 controller (?),
"HostRAID" == software RAID
Quoted 3 lines
allows for setting up the arrays etc, however, 'lspci -vv' identifies it as a Marvell Technology MV88SX6041 RAID controller.
It could indeed be software RAID by controller, but as far as the OS is concerned the controller presents the array to the OS as a single disc...
Incorrect. The driver sees only the individual discs.
Jeff
Hoi Jeff,
Quoted 1 line
Incorrect. The driver sees only the individual discs.
Thanks for your help, software RAID is not good enough...
cheers,
Jan
Signature · 19 lines
A journalist once asked the late Gandhi what he thought of the western civilization. Gandhi replied: "Western Civilization? That would be a good idea!". ---- Ships Unit Information, Communication, Technology Greenpeace International Ottho Heldringstraat 5 1066 AZ AMSTERDAM Netherlands (MET) direct +31 (0)20 7182084 fax +31 (0)20 5148151 reception +31 (0)20 5148150 email jan.bakuwel&int.greenpeace.org private jan.bakuwel&hccnet.nl (replace & by @ in the emailaddress)