On 8/17/2016 7:46 AM, Fawzy Ibrhim wrote:> There's no option in BIOS to disable the RAID mode; this is NEC servers !!huh. i've never seen anyone using the lsi megaraid firmware with intel SATA ports, so thats two things weird about NEC, kinda glad I don't ever see those. -- john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz
Am 17.08.2016 um 20:22 schrieb John R Pierce:> On 8/17/2016 7:46 AM, Fawzy Ibrhim wrote: >> There's no option in BIOS to disable the RAID mode; this is NEC >> servers !! > > huh. i've never seen anyone using the lsi megaraid firmware with > intel SATA ports, so thats two things weird about NEC, kinda glad I > don't ever see those.I have been working as a NEC partner and reseller and know very well what NEC implements in their Express 5800 server line. They do not ship anything from LSI which is fake RAID. The onboard SATA controllers are Intel chip technology and can work with Windows drivers in fake RAID mode. Not with Linux. On the other hand when real RAID is wanted NEC sells LSI PCI controllers. In the model R120b-2 it had been the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9264-8i. That controller has a BIOS where you define all the common parameters which apply to a true RAID controller. What NEC offers can easily be seen in the Configuration Guide for the named server model: http://www.nec.com/en/global/prod/express/rack/r120b-2/collateral/R120b-2_CG.pdf NEC did some Linux compatibility testing: http://www.nec.com/en/global/prod/express/linux/r120b-2/EN_R120b-2_CentOS64.html http://www.nec.com/en/global/prod/express/linux/r120b-2/EN_R120b-2_RH64.html It is pretty simple: if lspci does not print out a PCI RAID controller card then there is simply no real RAID functionality and no LSI component in that server model. NEC engineers very solid and produces very reliable server hardware. Many components are industry standard, as the Intel chipsets and processors, OEM LSI RAID controller cards, Emulex FiberChannel HBAs, ... NEC does not do any strange modification like implementing LSI firmware into Intel chips. Though their motherboards are their own design and are manufactured in Japan. Regards Alexander
On 8/17/2016 2:28 PM, Alexander Dalloz wrote:> I have been working as a NEC partner and reseller and know very well > what NEC implements in their Express 5800 server line. > > They do not ship anything from LSI which is fake RAID. The onboard > SATA controllers are Intel chip technology and can work with Windows > drivers in fake RAID mode. Not with Linux. > > On the other hand when real RAID is wanted NEC sells LSI PCI > controllers. In the model R120b-2 it had been the LSI MegaRAID SAS > 9264-8i. That controller has a BIOS where you define all the common > parameters which apply to a true RAID controller.Fawny's screen shot of the BIOS showed "LSI MegaRAID Software RAID BIOS' finding "LSI SATA RAID" on PCI device 00:1F, and his lspci output identifies 00:1F as the intel ICH SATA in fake-raid mode, and no LSI devices at all. This is what I based my statements on. -- john r pierce, recycling bits in santa cruz
Dear Alexander; Thanks for your reply but what you are saying could apply in Europe and USA but not in Middle East. I'm using these servers for around 5 years now and I know it's NEC with FakeRaid ; please check these photos https://drive.google.com/open?id=0BzqgoXi9IUMid3pNOXRZOHZuMkU I totally agree with John; NEC sold these servers with fakeraid from LSI as I used to login to LSI Firmware to manage the RAID disks. But when I install Centos 5.X/6.X 64bit; I can see the disks as standalone disks as well as dmraid devices. # dmraid -rD /dev/sda: ddf1, ".ddf1_disks", GROUP, ok, 974608384 sectors, data@ 0 /dev/sdb: ddf1, ".ddf1_disks", GROUP, ok, 974608384 sectors, data@ 0 It looks like kernel issue more than Centos 7 issue as I faced the same issue while installing Debian 8 Please; check this link:- https://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=9813 https://www.centos.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=49069 Thanks again for you and John and I hope they will solve this bug as soon as possible