HBA/RAID Utilities

Adaptec RAID integration

Adaptec controllers are automatically detected and can be managed via the QuantaStor web management interface.

Fusion IO integration

The Fusion IO integration requires that the fio-util and iomemory-vsl packages are installed. Once installed the Fusion IO control and logic devices will automatically show up in the Hardware Enclosures & Controllers view within QuantaStor Manager.

LSI 3ware integration

3ware controllers are automatically discovered and can be managed via the QuantaStor web management interface.

Note that if you arbitrarily remove a disk that was being utilized by a 3ware RAID unit, there are additional steps required before you can re-add it to the appliance. 3ware writes configuration data on the disk in what's called a Disk Control Block (DCB) and this needs to be scrubbed before you can use the disk again as a hot spare or within another unit. There is a great article written here on how to scrub the DCB on a disk so that you can use it again with your LSI 3ware controller. Formatting the disk in another system will also suffice. You can then add it back into the old system and designate it as a spare, and if you have a unit that is degraded it will automatically adopt the spare and begin rebuilding the unit back to a fully fault tolerant status. Of course if you pulled the disk because it was faulty you'll want RMA it to the manufacture for a warranty replacement.

LSI MegaRAID / DELL PERC integration

LSI MegaRAID, DELL PERC, IBM ServeRAID and Intel RAID controllers are fully supported by QuantaStor and can be managed via the web management interface. Note also that QuantaStor includes a command line utility called qs-util which assists with some MegaRAID maintenance operations. These include:

    qs-util megawb                   : Set Write-Back cache mode on all LSI MR units w/ BBU
    qs-util megaforcewb              : (W!) Force Write-Back cache mode on all LSI MR units
    qs-util megaclearforeign         : (W!) Clear the foreign config info from all LSI controllers
    qs-util megaccsetup              : Setup MegaRAID consistency check and patrol read settings
    qs-util megalsiget               : Generates a LSIget log report and sends it to support@osnexus.com

Common Configuration Settings

Disable Copyback

The MegaRAID controller will auto-heal a RAID unit using an available hot-spare in case of a drive failure. When the bad drive is pulled and a new drive is inserted and marked as hot-spare the location of your hot-spare drive will have changed. In fact it will change every time a bad drive is replaced. Generally speaking there is no impact to performance by having your hot-spare in a new location each time but over time it leads to a less organized chassis. As such there is a 'Copy Back' feature which copies the data from the hot-spare back to the original location after a new hot-spare has be inserted where the failed disk was located. Copy back does add time to the rebuild process so some prefer to disable it and just deal with the less organized drive placement in the chassis. To disable copy back on all controllers run this command at the QuantaStor console or via ssh as root:

MegaCli -AdpSetProp -copybackdsbl -1 -aall

To enable the CopyBack feature on all controllers run this command:

MegaCli -AdpSetProp -copybackdsbl -0 -aall

Increasing the RAID unit Rebuild Rate

The default rebuild rate is 30% which can lead to some long rebuilds depending on the size of your RAID unit and the amount of load on it. To increase the rate you can issue the following command at the console or ssh to increase it to 75% or higher:

MegaCli -AdpSetProp RebuildRate 75 -aall

Disabling the Alarm

If your server is in a datacenter then the alarm is not going to help much in identifying the problematic controller card and will only serve to cause grief. As such, you might want to disable the alarms:

MegaCli -AdpSetProp AlarmDsbl -aall

To just silence the current alarm run this:

MegaCli -AdpSetProp AlarmSilence -aall

The two most common cases for an alarm are that a disk needs to be replaced or the battery backup unit is not functioning properly. You can also silence all alarms using the web management interface.

Auto Import Foreign RAID units

The MegaRAID controllers can be a little troublesome if you're moving disks and/or disk chassis around as the disk drives will appear as 'foreign' to the controller when you move them. Most of the time you'll just want to import these foreign units automatically so that you don't have to press space-bar at boot time to continue the boot process. To avoid this, set the policy on the controllers to automatically import foreign units with this command: sudo MegaCli -AdpSetProp AutoEnhancedImportEnbl -aALL

Here's an example of what that looks like:

qadmin@qs-testing:~$ sudo MegaCli -AdpSetProp AutoEnhancedImportEnbl -aALL
[sudo] password for qadmin:

Adapter 0: Set Auto Enhanced Import to Enable success.
Adapter 1: Set Auto Enhanced Import to Enable success.

Exit Code: 0x00

Installing the MegaRAID CLI on older QuantaStor v2 systems

QuantaStor v3 and newer systems work with LSI MegaRAID controllers with no additional software to be installed. For older v2 systems first login to your QuantaStor system at the console. You'll need to make sure that your system is network connected with internet access as it will be downloading some necessary files and packages. Next, run the following two commands to install:

cd /opt/osnexus/quantastor/raid-tools
sudo lsimegaraid-install.sh

It will take a couple of minutes for the QuantaStor service to detect that the MegaRAID CLI is now installed but then you'll see the hardware configuration show up automatically in the web interface. The other thing is that this script will have upgraded the megaraid_sas driver included with QuantaStor. As such you must restart the system using the "Restart Storage System" option in the QuantaStor web management interface. Last, new firmware is required to 3TB and larger drives so if you have a older 9260 or 9280 controller be sure to download and apply the latest firmware. Here's an example of how to upgrade MegaRAID firmware using the MegaCli.

MegaCli -AdpFwFlash -f FW1046E.rom -a0

Adapter 0: PERC H800 Adapter
Vendor ID: 0x1000, Device ID: 0x0079

FW version on the controller: 2.0.03-0772
FW version of the image file: 2.100.03-1046
Download Completed.
Flashing image to adapter...
Adapter 0: Flash Completed.

Exit Code: 0x00

HP SmartArray RAID integration

HP SmartArray controllers are supported out-of-the box with no additional software to be installed. You can manage your HP RAID controller via the QuantaStor web management interface where you can create RAID units, mark hot-spares, replace drives, etc.