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

Tue Aug 30 06:39:26 UTC 2011

I somewhat doubt it's a driver thing, since it happens only with WD drives, and it happens with both the mpt and mpt_sas drivers.

roy

----- Original Message -----
> Oh I see, I thought you were misusing the term sector and so I went
> along
> with your terminology.
> 
> I realize this is a hardware/driver thing, but by increasing the
> blocksize,
> it may change the number of interrupts per operation (or otherwise
> change
> the temporal characteristics with which the driver interacts with the
> hardware) and may help to mask a hardware defect. I thought that this
> is
> what you were suggesting.
> 
> I don't have an investment in these drives, so I'll happily not use
> them.
> 
> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 2:23 PM, Roy Sigurd Karlsbakk
> <roy at karlsbakk.net>wrote:
> 
> > 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
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > 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
> _______________________________________________
> 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.