2.6 hpt372 raid trouble

frankster · 09-27-2005, 04:19 PM

I have an onboard HPT372 chipset (on an epox 4pda2+) and I have got HPT raid working perfectly under kernel 2.4, but have continuously failed to get it working under 2.6.

Firstly - does the hpt366 driver in 2.6 even support Hightpoint raid? It detects hde/f/g/h but doesn't seem to detect any raid devices.

The information on the internet is fairly ropey about hptraid and 2.6, all of the success stories concern 2.4. I realise the early versions of 2.6 didnt support highpoint but do any of the later versions of 2.6?

cheers

Electro · 09-28-2005, 03:13 AM

Linux does not support RAID through software RAID controllers. If you have a Windows partition on the software RAID controller, you have to use dmraid in Linux to read the metadata from the controller BIOS. I recommend using Linux software RAID instead of using the controller's software RAID because Linux gives you useful tools to handle your RAID array.

Kernel version 2.6.x does have support for Highpoint controllers. Also kernel versoin 2.4.x as early as 2.4.19 or probably much earliar than that. I am using Highpoint controller model HPT370/HPT372 and it works fine on kernel vesrion 2.6.10 and up.

lohb1ac · 10-10-2005, 05:45 PM

Frankster: I am experiencing the same problem as you.

Electro: Are you booting from your raid devices using 2.6?

I have the following setup:

Soyo dragon kt400 with on-board hpt370

/dev/hde and /dev/hdf are striped and make up /dev/ataraid/d0
d0 holds /boot, / , and a swap partition
/boot is ext2
/ is reiserfs

/dev/hdg and /dev/hdh are mirrors of one another and make up /dev/ataraid/d1
d1 holds /opt
/opt is reiserfs

lilo is set to boot from /dev/ataraid/d0 with root being /dev/ataraid/d0p2

The 2.6.13.3 kernel has ext2, reiserfs, and HPT36X/37X chipset support compiled in.

When I boot up I get:

Code:

VFS: Cannot open root device "7202" or unknown-lock(114,2)
Please append a correct "root=" boot option"
Kernel Panic - not syncing: VFS: Unable to mount root fs on unknown-block(114,2)

To me it looks like the kernel doesn't recognize the "ataraid/dx" type devices, even though I have compiled the HPT support in. I have gone through the kernel config several times looking for any dependencies that the HPT37X chipset support may need, it looks like I have everything selected that I would need. During bootup of the 2.6 kernel I do see the HPT37X detected, but I never see any mention of any ataraid devices.

I know I could start over using the linux raid tools, but this works fine in 2.4.

On another note, when the kernel I am booting up panics the information is scrolling by so quick it's hard to read. Is there a trick to paging through that?

Anyone have any ideas?

thomas.jensen · 10-13-2005, 01:17 PM

Hi!
I Also have a HPT372 onboard raid controller, and my problem is that I can't mount my raid partition running linux 2.6 (Gentoo). I had no problem in linux 2.4 (Slackware).

From dmesg:

Code:

HPT372: chipset revision 5
HPT372: 100% native mode on irq 10
HPT37X: using 33MHz PCI clock
    ide2: BM-DMA at 0xe800-0xe807, BIOS settings: hde:DMA, hdf:DMA
HPT37X: using 33MHz PCI clock
    ide3: BM-DMA at 0xe808-0xe80f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
Probing IDE interface ide2...
hde: MAXTOR 6L080L4, ATA DISK drive
hdf: MAXTOR 6L080L4, ATA DISK drive
ide2 at 0xd800-0xd807,0xdc02 on irq 10

From fdisk -l:

Code:

Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/hde1               1       15805   126953631   83  Linux
/dev/hde2   *       15806       19465    29398950    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

Disk /dev/hdf: 80.0 GB, 80054059008 bytes
16 heads, 63 sectors/track, 155114 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 1008 * 512 = 516096 bytes

And trying to mount the raid as I did with the 2.4 kernel:

Code:

# mount -t auto /dev/ataraid/d0p1 /home
mount: /dev/ataraid/d0p1 is not a valid block device

I hope someone can tell me what is wrong!
Thanks!

\Thomas

Electro · 10-13-2005, 03:45 PM

From the logs, you are not running a RAID array off of the Highpoint controller unless you screw up the Linux installation. The drives are on hde and hdf. There are partitions on the hde drive but not on the hdf drive. Even if you setup software RAID from the controller, it will not perform well and both drives will fail when one drive fails. It is best to place the drive on that is on hdf to hdg.

Did you run dmraid?

I do not use RAID because my computers are still too fast when writing and reading files, so I can not help you any further.

thomas.jensen · 10-13-2005, 04:42 PM

Thank you for your fast reply.

First of all I'm not quite sure that understand how the Highpoint 372 raid controller works, and either all your points in your reply. I found out what dmraid is and build a new kernel with support for device mapping and installed dmraid and activated my raid. And it works! Now my question is; is there any point in using the HPT372 or is it only some sales trick? Would I achieve better performance by using software raid in linux or simply mounting my drives as two separate partitions?

Code:

fdisk -l /dev/mapper/hpt37x_dbdghfadch

Disk /dev/mapper/hpt37x_dbdghfadch: 160.1 GB, 160107976704 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19465 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

                        Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/mapper/hpt37x_dbdghfadch1               1       15805   126953631   83  Linux
/dev/mapper/hpt37x_dbdghfadch2   *       15806       19465    29398950    c  W95 FAT32 (LBA)

\thomas

Electro · 10-13-2005, 09:49 PM

The HPT372 is just an PATA controller. The RocketRAID version contains additional software that the main processor runs to handle the RAID array. What I read, the RAID management software that controls the Highpoint RAID array may not work with certain kernel versions. Linux software RAID utilities are stable and updated when there are problems. If you multi-boot between Windows and Linux, Windows can not read the Linux software RAID array. In some systems dmraid may decrease the performance of the RAID array in Linux compared to Windows.

On two channel IDE controllers like the HPT370/HPT372, it is best to place one hard drive on each channel instead both on one channel. In simpler terms, for each IDE connector on the controller should only contain one hard drive when setting up any RAID level. In your setup the first drive that fails (dies) will also make the other drive fail (die) even though the second drive is in good health. In some cases with your setup, the drive that failed will make the the second hard drive fail and the second drive may not work the next the computer reboots. There is a performance penalty with your setup, because one drive can only be use at one time on the IDE cable. Instead of getting 60 MB per second. You will get something around 45 MB per second. The average rate a hard drive can read and write is 30 MB per second.

RAID 0 should only be use for copying +100 megabyte files over a 1 gigabit network, recording raw video and raw sound, and scanning and processing high quality (+600 dpi) images. RAID 0 should never be used for an OS drive. RAID 1 is better for an OS drive.

I am in fact using RAID but not with data. I use it for swap by specifying the same priority for each swap partition. I use hde1 and hdg1 for swap. They are both a gigabyte, so a total of 2 GB for swap.