CentOS - May 2016 - OT: hardware: MegaCli and initializing a RAID

Got a new box I'm trying to set up. I configured the RAID from the
firmware, but "fast initialize" was sitting there at 0% (it's
about 43 or
45TB). The first time I tried this, I said background, and rebooted the
system.

And the stupid annoying alarm started up as the system came up.

This time, having *finally* figured out how to set up hot spares from the
WebBIOS, I suspended the fast initialization, and brought the system up.

Googling, I can't find a command to continue the initialization. Anyone
know of one, or is what I want to do rebuild the RAID?

       mark

On 5/6/2016 11:36 AM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
> Got a new box I'm trying to set up. I configured the RAID from the
> firmware, but "fast initialize" was sitting there at 0% (it's
about 43 or
> 45TB). The first time I tried this, I said background, and rebooted the
> system.
>
> And the stupid annoying alarm started up as the system came up.
>
> This time, having*finally*  figured out how to set up hot spares from the
> WebBIOS, I suspended the fast initialization, and brought the system up.
>
> Googling, I can't find a command to continue the initialization. Anyone
> know of one, or is what I want to do rebuild the RAID?
MegaCli64, which has to be installed.

the command lines are awful.


-- 
john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz

John R Pierce wrote:
> On 5/6/2016 11:36 AM, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>> Got a new box I'm trying to set up. I configured the RAID from the
>> firmware, but "fast initialize" was sitting there at 0%
(it's about 43
>> or 45TB). The first time I tried this, I said background, and rebooted
>> the system.
>>
>> And the stupid annoying alarm started up as the system came up.
>>
>> This time, having*finally*  figured out how to set up hot spares from
>> the WebBIOS, I suspended the fast initialization, and brought the
>> system up.
>>
>> Googling, I can't find a command to continue the initialization.
Anyone
>> know of one, or is what I want to do rebuild the RAID?
>
> MegaCli64, which has to be installed.
>
That's what I'm using.
> the command lines are awful.
!$ += 500

        mark

On Fri, May 6, 2016 1:36 pm, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
> Got a new box I'm trying to set up. I configured the RAID from the
> firmware, but "fast initialize" was sitting there at 0% (it's
about 43 or
> 45TB). The first time I tried this, I said background, and rebooted the
> system.
>
> And the stupid annoying alarm started up as the system came up.
>
> This time, having *finally* figured out how to set up hot spares from the
> WebBIOS, I suspended the fast initialization, and brought the system up.
>
> Googling, I can't find a command to continue the initialization. Anyone
> know of one, or is what I want to do rebuild the RAID?
I agree with what John said about their command line interface MegaCli.
One thing I have noticed about LSI MegaRaids is: if you hot replace bad
drive with good one of the same size or larger (which doesn't have on it
traces of being configured in any raid, not necessarily LSI), then the
drive is accepted as replacement member into the same volume group, and
array gets rebuilt in background automagically. You may want to check
first if it is on its way rebuilding already.

Valeri
>
>        mark


++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>
> On Fri, May 6, 2016 1:36 pm, m.roth at 5-cent.us wrote:
>> Got a new box I'm trying to set up. I configured the RAID from the
>> firmware, but "fast initialize" was sitting there at 0%
(it's about 43
>> or 45TB). The first time I tried this, I said background, and
>> rebooted the system.
>>
>> And the stupid annoying alarm started up as the system came up.
>>
>> This time, having *finally* figured out how to set up hot spares from
>> the WebBIOS, I suspended the fast initialization, and brought the
system up.
<snip>
> I agree with what John said about their command line interface MegaCli.
> One thing I have noticed about LSI MegaRaids is: if you hot replace bad
Trust me, I've been cursing that interface for years now.
> drive with good one of the same size or larger (which doesn't have on
it
> traces of being configured in any raid, not necessarily LSI), then the
> drive is accepted as replacement member into the same volume group, and
> array gets rebuilt in background automagically. You may want to check
> first if it is on its way rebuilding already.
Yeah, I checked with parted, and saw the full size, so then I thought to
check the status of the RAID, and it said it was optimal, which I guess
means it finished the fast initialization. Partitioned it, built an XFS
filesystem, and it's mounted.

Has *ANYONE* at LSI/AVAGO *ever* had anyone other than the folks who wrote
the code (or maybe that was Dilbert, himself) try to *use* it?

        mark

Dear Experts,

one of the RAID threads today prompted me ask everybody.

Which internal hardware RAID controllers will survive some future to come
in your estimate. First of all my beloved 3ware finally seems to have
passed away. After multiple acquisitions and becoming part of LSI and
getting bought with LSI, it probably became non operational. Namely, the
latest 3ware cards have ancient firmware. Neither of them supports 4kn
drives. This speaks for itself for me. [Under new ownership] LSI, though
still having new controllers released, and one of their MegaRAID
controllers (at least) having support for 4kn drives, still may not last
long (just my feeling, I'd like to hear yours). So, what RAID controllers
will those of us who like to have hardware RAIDs use in some future to
come?

Valeri

PS I didn't mention Areca (I only have 2 or 3 their cards in my boxes),
which seems to have firmware update that supports 4kn drives. Is Areca our
future hardware RAID hardware?

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Valeri Galtsev
Sr System Administrator
Department of Astronomy and Astrophysics
Kavli Institute for Cosmological Physics
University of Chicago
Phone: 773-702-4247
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

> I agree with what John said about their command line interface MegaCli.
It's not that bad, the cli is incredibly detailed so it's just vast.
It's not any
different in complexity from hpacu in my opinion.
> One thing I have noticed about LSI MegaRaids is: if you hot replace bad
> drive with good one of the same size or larger (which doesn't have on
it
> traces of being configured in any raid, not necessarily LSI), then the
> drive is accepted as replacement member into the same volume group, and
> array gets rebuilt in background automagically.
That behavior is configurable, again it's a matter of environment if that
make sense for you.

jlc

On Fri, 6 May 2016, Valeri Galtsev wrote:
>I agree with what John said about their command line interface MegaCli.
StorCli is the replacement, which has differently awful syntax.


/mark