Re: ICH5R SATA RAID?

Doug Ambrisko wrote:
> Kenneth D. Merry writes:
> | On Wed, Apr 07, 2004 at 07:15:09 -0700, Doug Ambrisko wrote:
> | > Kenneth D. Merry writes:
> | > | On Tue, Apr 06, 2004 at 20:29:10 -0700, Doug Ambrisko wrote:
> | > | > I have a SuperMicro system that does the Intel "ICH5-R" RAID.
> | > | > I should get inspired via the Linux code and see if I can add
> | > | > that.  So far I've haved setup the RAID but have turned on the ICH
> | > | > flag.
> | > | 
> | > | Adaptec HostRAID is software RAID.  By software RAID, I mean that you only
> | > | get BIOS support from the card for booting, and after that all of the RAID
> | > | functionality is handled via the host OS.
> | > | 
> | > | Some of their SCSI controllers include HostRAID support.  e.g.:
> | > | 
> | > | http://www.adaptec.com/worldwide/product/proddetail.html?sess=no&language=English+US&prodkey=ASC-39320A-R&cat=%2fTechnology%2fUltra320%2fNew+Ultra320+SCSI!
> | > 
> | > The ICH stuff is not SCSI.  There was no mention of Adaptec in the
> | > manual for this motherboard.  There were other SuperMicro boards that
> | > had SCSI controllers on them but this one and the one I have do not.
> | > They just have SATA ports that can do RAID.
> | 
> | True, it is SATA, not SCSI.  But the concept, and some of the software, is
> | the same.  It's pretty common in OEM deals for the actual vendor of the
> | software/hardware to remain unknown.  From what it looks like, the RAID
> | functionality is all in software, as opposed to running on a chip embedded
> | in the ICH5.
> 
> I have working code to read the Intel ICH RAID meta data.  I can boot 
> a FreeBSD root partition off a stripe.  I looked at your page and it was 
> difficult to see the actual meta data definition.  I might have missed
> it since I was looking at the patch as a patch it didn't look the same at 
> all.  Do you have a non-patch version of the meta data definition?
> 
> Now I need to code up the "write out" of the configuration.  Currently I just
> use the configuration created by the BIOS.
> 
> I should have this done today then I need to test failure modes.

Then you are about as far as I was when I got sidetracked back when :)
I have code to read adaptec / AMI / Intel meta data, but no writes yet, 
so it has stranded there as I hoped that the right solution would show 
up in GEOM somehow. However now that I'm close to having the Promise 
SX4/4000 going I realize that a GEOM solution wont fly for me anyways so 
things might get changed ....

-- 
-Søren