[OpenIndiana-discuss] BAD WD drives - defective by design?

[Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk]

file systems don't have sectors, they have blocks. and zfs normally uses 512b-128k blocks, which is fine. this issue won't be fixed by reducing the recordsize in zfs, it's a hardware/driver thing

----- Original Message -----
> I think Rich was suggesting using 4k sectors on the file system, not
> asking
> what the drives sector size was.
> 
> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 2:15 PM, Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> <roy at karlsbakk.net>wrote:
> 
> > All drives have 512b sector sizes, WD FASS (blacks) and WD EADS
> > (greens)
> > both use plain old 512 sectors.....
> >
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > > The drives are attached to a backplane?
> > >
> > > Try using 4k sector sizes and see if that improves it - I've seen
> > > and
> > > been part of a number of discussions which involved this - and
> > > you, I
> > > think, actually.
> > >
> > > - Rich
> > >
> > > On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 5:07 PM, Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> > > <roy at karlsbakk.net> wrote:
> > > > Hi all
> > > >
> > > > It seems recent WD drives that aren't "Raid edition" can cause
> > > > rather a lot of problems on RAID systems. We have a few machines
> > > > with LSI controllers (6801/6081/9201) and we're seeing massive
> > > > errors occuring. The usual pattern is a drive failing or even a
> > > > resilver/scrub starting and then, suddenly, most drives on the
> > > > whole
> > > > backplane report errors. These are usually No Device (as
> > > > reported by
> > > > iostat -En), but the result is that we may see data corruption
> > > > at
> > > > the end. We also have a system setup with Hitachi Deskstars,
> > > > which
> > > > has been running for almost a year without issues. One system
> > > > with a
> > > > mixture of WD Blacks and greens showed the same errors as
> > > > described,
> > > > but has been working well after the WD drives were replaced by
> > > > deskstars.
> > > >
> > > > Now, it seems WD has changed their firmware to inhibit people
> > > > from
> > > > using them for other things than toys (read: PCs etc). Since
> > > > we've
> > > > seen this issue on different controllers and different drives,
> > > > and
> > > > can't reproduce it with Hitachi Deskstars, I would guess the
> > > > firmware "upgrade" from WD is the issue.
> > > >
> > > > Would it be possible to fix this in ZFS somehow? The drives seem
> > > > to
> > > > work well except for those "No Device" errors....
> > > >
> > > > Vennlige hilsener / Best regards
> > > >
> > > > roy
> > > > --
> > > > Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> > > > (+47) 97542685
> > > > roy at karlsbakk.net
> > > > http://blogg.karlsbakk.net/
> > > > --
> > > > I all pedagogikk er det essensielt at pensum presenteres
> > > > intelligibelt. Det er et elementært imperativ for alle pedagoger
> > > > å
> > > > unngå eksessiv anvendelse av idiomer med fremmed opprinnelse. I
> > > > de
> > > > fleste tilfeller eksisterer adekvate og relevante synonymer på
> > > > norsk.
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list
> > > > OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> > > > http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> > > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list
> > > OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> > > http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> >
> > --
> > Vennlige hilsener / Best regards
> >
> > roy
> > --
> > Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> > (+47) 97542685
> > roy at karlsbakk.net
> > http://blogg.karlsbakk.net/
> > --
> > I all pedagogikk er det essensielt at pensum presenteres
> > intelligibelt. Det
> > er et elementært imperativ for alle pedagoger å unngå eksessiv
> > anvendelse av
> > idiomer med fremmed opprinnelse. I de fleste tilfeller eksisterer
> > adekvate
> > og relevante synonymer på norsk.
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > OpenIndiana-discuss mailing list
> > OpenIndiana-discuss at openindiana.org
> > http://openindiana.org/mailman/listinfo/openindiana-discuss
> >
> 
> 
> 
> --
> "I hope some animal never bores a hole in my head and lays its eggs in
> my
> brain, because later you might think you're having a good idea but
> it's just
> eggs hatching" - Jack Handy
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-- 
Vennlige hilsener / Best regards

roy
--
Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
(+47) 97542685
roy at karlsbakk.net
http://blogg.karlsbakk.net/
--
I all pedagogikk er det essensielt at pensum presenteres intelligibelt. Det er et elementært imperativ for alle pedagoger å unngå eksessiv anvendelse av idiomer med fremmed opprinnelse. I de fleste tilfeller eksisterer adekvate og relevante synonymer på norsk.