On Apr 13, 2008, at 5:08 PM, Chris Cantwell wrote: > I finally solved this one. > > I changed to a spare identical motherboard (good thing I had one), > with > identical results, the computer stalled after identifying the 320GB > hard > drives. I was beginng to wonder if I needed to try another > motherboard with > a different SATA controller, but everything pointed to the drives > beign > corrupted somehow by the zpool command. As a last gasp effort, I > destroyed > that zpool and created another one, using slightly different device > names, > added "p0" to the end of each device: > > # zpool create extpool raidz c2d0p0 c3d0p0 c4d0p0 c5d0p0 > > This ends up with the same zpool as the previous effort (se below > message), > and the computer will not stall during the POST, allowing me to > reboot it. > > Whew! I don't know what was going on there, but it's fixed.
What is going on there (the difference between using the p0 and not) is the difference between using a disk partition vs. the entire disk. When you created the ZFS pool the first time you used the entire disk. By adding p0 you used the first (DOS-style) partition on the disk. There is nothing wrong in particular doing it either way. However I have a suspicion that the RAID controller was reading the disk looking for its unique RAID signature and that whatever it saw from ZFS confused it. By simply using a partition you caused the disk to appear more "normal" and then the RAID controller would no longer get confused. I hope that's clear. Glad you were able to figure it out. /BAK/ -- Ben Klang Alkaloid Networks LLC [EMAIL PROTECTED] 404.475.4850 http://projects.alkaloid.net > > Chris > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 1 > Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 02:17:29 -0400 > From: "Chris Cantwell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: ZFS raidz causes BIOS POST to fail > To: <[email protected]> > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > Hello, I have a bizarre situation that I've never encountered before. > > > > I installed Nextenta 1.0.1 test3 on a AMD 939 motherboard. Two > primary > drives for the OS on a SiI3132 SATA (PCI Express) controller, and four > additional 320GB SATA drives on the onboard nVidia nForce SATA/RAID > controller, the onboard RAID was disabled. Nextenta recognizes all > the > drives as follows: > > c1t0d0 80GB SiI3132 controller > c1t1d0 80GB > c2d0 320GB > c3d0 320GB > c4d0 320GB > c5d0 320GB > > The OS installs nicely on the two 80GB drives, reboots, and when > you get to > the console. zpool status shows the drives are mirrored, and > working OK. > > I then create another zpool using the four 320GB drives: > # zpool create extpool raidz c2d0 c3d0 c4d0 c5d0 > # zfs create extpool/data > # ln -s /extpool/data /data > Again zpool status shows everything OK. > > To test the setup I copy the entire /usr directory to /data, > everything > looks good, no errors. I reboot the machine and the computer > stalls during > POST, right after the external drives are recognized by the BIOS. > > I try some different things with no success, but I eventually fixed > it by > attaching the drives to another SATA RAID controller (Highpoint > RocketRAID > 1740), and "initializing" the drives. I reattached the drives to the > onboard nVidia SATA RAID controller, and the machine booted. > > I replicated the situation by booting back into Nexenta, recreating > the > zpool, and rebooting again. The machine stalled once more after > recognizing > the drives on the POST. > > Apparently ZFS has changed something on the 320GB drives the does > not agree > with the nVidia nForce SATA controller. The BIOS is reading some > identification info from the drives, and the ZFS metadata on the > drives is > locking up the POST. > > Does anyone have a workaround for this situation, so I can boot the > machine > with the 320GB drives configured as raidz? > > Thanks, > > Chris > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > > Message: 2 > Date: Sun, 13 Apr 2008 07:58:28 -0700 > From: Erast Benson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: ZFS raidz causes BIOS POST to fail > To: Chris Cantwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: [email protected] > Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset=utf-8 > > Chris, > > it could be either that your mobo's BIOS doesn't like EFI labels > and need to > be upgraded, or make sure that c1 disks are first in the BIOS boot > order. > > > _______________________________________________ > gnusol-users mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/gnusol-users _______________________________________________ gnusol-users mailing list [email protected] http://lists.sonic.net/mailman/listinfo/gnusol-users
