IBM M5014 issues, responsiveness, BBU

[Alexdi]

IBM M5014 issues, replaced with Adaptec 5805

The purpose of this thread shifted a bit, I'm not trying to solve LSI issues anymore. I've added some notes from the Adaptec in later posts.

ORIGINAL POST:

I just moved from a RAIDCore controller to an IBM M5014 I purchased on EBay. My first step was to flash the firmware to the 9260i as describe on this site. That went uneventfully, but I've had a couple of issues I hope you can help me resolve.

My system is:

i7 875K
Gigabyte P55A-UD3
7 x 2TB Hitachi 5400 RPM
IcyDock 5in3 SATA backplane

Issues:

* I installed the MegaRAID software, created a RAID-5 with all drives, and then tried to see how I could break it. I pulled one drive and then two, and then reinserted them. Both drives are now listed as "(Foreign) Unconfigured good". Neither can be added to a virtual drive. I can't figure out how to change them back to normal. The manual is comprehensive, but unhelpful so far.

* My BBU lists the following properties:

Status: Degraded (Needs Attention)
Temperature: High (50C)
Retention time: 13 hours
Charge: 63%
Charging Status: None
Date of Manufacture: 1/6/09
Voltage: 3675 mV
Current: 0 mA
Design Capacity: 1215 mAh
Full Capacity: 215 mAh
Remaining Capacity: 135 mAh
Expected Margin of Error: 100%
Completed Discharge Cycles: 52
Next Learn Cycle Time: 11/23/11

Attempting to start a manual learn cycle results in this: "BBU is not in a state to start a learn cycle"

Is this battery still functional? The seller will allow me to exchange the unit if it is not. It doesn't seem to be charging.

* The controller is unusually unresponsive to noticing new drives. If I plug in many at once, it's unlikely to register one or more. Removing and reinstalling each drive one at a time causes it to register, but it usually takes ten seconds. My RAIDCore controller was instantaneous and noticed everything. Is this typical?

* I don't appear to have the ability to set Power Settings to control drive spindown. The option doesn't exist where it's supposed to be. The manual says it disappears if unsupported. Does a 9260i not support this feature?

Thanks for your help.

 

[MiniKnight]

Battery Full Capacity is 1/6 of new. Probably why that is not so good.

Fairly normal for spindle drives on the MegaRAID as far as recognizing them.

mobilenvidia has info on spindown

Other than bbu, RAIDCore < MegaRAID.

 

[supermacro]

Your BBU has reached its end of life, unfortunately. Keep in mind that BBU does its usual cycle once every month and although you can manually start the learn cycle 52 discharged cycle is a lot and I'm pretty sure it's dead if not already.

If it sees it as "foreign" then the controller does recognize it and you just have to "import" that foreign configuration back. Try logging in to WebBios and see if you can import this.

 

[mobilenvidia]

To reset the drives from 'Foreign' to just Unconfigured good, when importing foreign drives, just click clear configuration.

Boot into the WebBIOS (CTRL+H) at boot time
In here, under controller properties find Factory default, select what ever to enable it, press submit.
Device will reset the controller to default settings ))
Any arrays will be remembered as they are stored on the drives.

Also in the WebBIOS, is a BBU page, have a fiddle with it in here.

Spindown, also check in here, 'active drive' spindown is no longer supported by LSI as of about FW12.12.0-0048
But you can still spin down Hot spare

Hope this helps

 

[Alexdi]

Thanks, I did manage to find the thread on spindown. It's annoying it was nixed. The new firmware (late 2012) fixed an issue with Web BIOS, so I'm not going back to gain that feature.

The RAIDCore card was actually great. Not as fast as this one, but a great interface and very flexible. I was getting too many drive drops to keep it, though. This LSI card is going back to the vendor tomorrow; I'm rolling the dice on another old battery. Is there a source to get them cheaper? EBay sellers want about $130.

 

[MiniKnight]

Thanks, I did manage to find the thread on spindown. It's annoying it was nixed. The new firmware (late 2012) fixed an issue with Web BIOS, so I'm not going back to gain that feature.

The RAIDCore card was actually great. Not as fast as this one, but a great interface and very flexible. I was getting too many drive drops to keep it, though. This LSI card is going back to the vendor tomorrow; I'm rolling the dice on another old battery. Is there a source to get them cheaper? EBay sellers want about $130.

That's normal for new bbus. Love to see more about RAIDcore.

 

[Alexdi]

RAIDCore was a very clever firmware stack that could be adapted to any drive controller. When it originally came out in 2004, it was capable of all the standard RAID levels except RAID-6. All major RAID features (OCE et. al.) were supported; it was more flexible than most of the hardware controllers at the time. Multiple controllers could be treated be treated as a single unit, so you could have (if you were foolish enough) a 32-drive RAID-5, or an enormous RAID-1. Later, they released a software package called 'VST Pro' that would treat Intel chipset drive controllers exactly like the add-on boards.

The software used system RAM for write cache, so if your system was stable and on a UPS, you could have essentially instant transfers of very large files. All the parity calculations were done the CPU. With an old Athlon X2 and an 8-drive RAID 5, I saw as much as 40% CPU usage during large writes. On a modern CPU, you wouldn't notice any impact. Read and write speed were fast, but inconsistent compared to a hardware controller.

Compared to Windows RAID (via Dynamic Disks or Storage Spaces), RAIDCore is much faster and more reliable. Linux RAID and RAID-Z, I can't comment.

 

[Alexdi]

The M5014 experiment has come to a close. I've sent it back to the dealer and ordered an Adaptec 5805 to replace it. The two cards cost about the same ($150 for the Sun-branded half-cache 5805 and $175 for the full monty), but the 5805 has RAID-6, drive spindown, and potentially a more functional pre-boot interface. We'll see how things go when it arrives.

 

[mrkrad]

how is 5805 versus 9260 w/fastpath compare out cash wise?

Which sun 5805 are you getting?

 

[Alexdi]

I opted for the Adaptec-branded model because firmware updates extend to mid-2012, as opposed to mid-2011 for the Sun version. Cost for my M5014 was $155. An actual 9260 with Fastpath would be much more.

The Adaptec (which includes the fanout cables and probably a functioning BBU) was $175. The only Sun model is 375-3536. There's a 'best offer' version of that without BBU that could probably be had for $130.

I'll update when I receive and test the card.

 

[mrkrad]

Maxcache 1 is terrible. It is an ssd mirror to a drive. silly.

2.0 is like cachecade 1.0 - read only caching

3.0 is like cachecade 2.0 - read and write caching.


FWIW i picked up my fastpath/cachecade 1.0 for $50 and the lsi 9260-8i (hp branded, as in they put their sticker on it ) for $60.

sweet ebay deals!

Remember a 9265 without fastpath is faster than a 9260 with fastpath. The cpu just doesn't have enough oomph on the single core 9260.

 

[Alexdi]

My impressions of this Adaptec controller so far are very positive. The software is miles more intuitive than the LSI equivalent. Temperatures are holding at 51C with a 120mm 800 RPM fan an inch from the card. Speed as been excellent. On a 7 x 2TB array, I was writing at 200 MB/s from two sources even while the array initialized. No troubles with the battery. No troubles with drive detection or drops. Multiple options to configure spindown and general power management. RAID-6 and a variety of alternate RAID levels are available if I want them.

The only question mark is OCE. It was rumored to be very slow. I'm doing an expansion to 8 drives, still in RAID-5. It looks like it'll take about 50 hours.

MaxCache and CacheCade aren't terribly important for my uses. I'm still on gigabit and I'm doing primarily sequential transfers. The server is just a big data dump. Not many small files, no VMs. You got quite a deal on your 9260-8i.

 

[orson]

My impressions of this Adaptec controller so far are very positive.

Did You cross flash it to original Adaptec firmware? Any guide/tutorial?

 

[mrkrad]

I'm surprised HP's smart-caching solution (PMC) isn't just maxcache. They announced it with Gen8 but it's vapor ware.