Adaptec 3805 Raid SATA/SAS ControllerI

[ichbins]

Im trying to install an Adaptec 3805 SATA/SAS Raid Controller.

If I execute the installer.sh script which was shipped with the controller i got errors with lilo.


"there is no initrd found .. add "this" to your bootparametr to fix it"



Is there no other way, than the initrd?


i use the aacraid kernel driver 2.6.25

[alex.blackbit]

what exactly is this script trying to do?
you say, you are using a driver that is part of the linux kernel.
is it confirmed that this driver works with your card/the chip on it?
Documentation/scsi/aacraid.txt says so.
if yes, then using something from adaptec's homepage should be unnecessary.
what do you expect this script to do?
are you using lilo or grub? if you are using grub and the script only knows lilo, the errors are only logical.

[ichbins]

sorry for the poor information.


the controller card should be detected by the aacraid driver in the kernel.

lspci is listenig the card with "raid bus: aacraid adaptec"

in the Controller Bios I have initalized and createt an Array.

But if I boot, there is no other drive in /dev/sd* than the five they are on the Onboard Sata Controller. (5 Disks on onboard Sata controller, 5 more new disks on the Adaptec raidcontroller).

The official driver cd from adaptec include a driver with a install skript. also there are a lilo.gwk a grub.gwk and others (at the moment i have no access to the machine and driver cd) so I think it should work with lilo and grub but searches for intird entrys.

This is generally my first Installation of an HW Raid Controller so I have no idea how to work with.

I thought it must be so:

1.) compile in the aacraid driver.
2.) in the BIOS from the RAID Controller create an Array
3.) boot into gentoo
4.) put a filesystem of choice on the array
5.) add the entrys to the fstab


Is there any mistake at my terminology?



after 3.) I didn't find any new device so I started to look for the official driver.

[alex.blackbit]

thanks for the explanation, the situation is clearer than before.
since the documentation says that your card is supported, you have a 99% probability that it works.
so, for now, forget the cd.
please make sure that the aacraid driver is really in the running kernel.
did you decide to compile it in the kernel or as a module?
i suggest in-kernel.
so,

• get the latest kernel sources
• copy your .config
• make a symlink to the new sources
• do make menuconfig, select the aacraid driver
• compile the kernel
• install kernel
• install modules
• rebuild third-party modules if necessary
• make sure the new kernel is really the one your bootloader picks
• reboot
• check dmesg output for output of the aacraid driver

concerning item "install kernel". i just tell my bootload to use /boot/vmlinuz, this way i have nothing to do after i run make install.

[ichbins]

yes i have aacraid compiled in the kernel not as a module.

is it true that if I have 6 disks (sd[a-f]) the raid array will be sdg1 ?!?

[alex.blackbit]

i don't know exactly what you mean.
do you already have 6 disks in your system and just added the raid array?
or did you build a array of 6 disks?
if you already had 6 disks, then the array will be named sdg, if not the driver is loaded before the one for your other disks, then it would be sda, and the other ones would come afterwards.
in the second case it does not matter how many disks you have in the array, only one "disk" would be visible to your system.
sdg1 refers to a partition, not a disk. after just creating a array in the bios of the controller, you will just get a sdx, and after partitioning with fdisk or cfdisk or whatever you will get sdx1, etc.
since you are sure that the driver is in the kernel, what does dmesg say? i already asked you that.

[ichbins]

Sorry , I hadn't physical access to the server. So I can't give you the Output from dmesg.

[ichbins]

yesterday I had access to the machine.

in the output from dmesg i can't find anything about the raidcontroller .. but lspci is seeing the controller card on

So I have testet an Knoppix cd (with kernel 2.6.19). Knoppix is finding the Array, so I have start to format the array with knoppix.


Do you know what i should could do, that the Controller Card will be properly identified?

I will post the Output from dmesg an lspci later when I have access to them.

[alex.blackbit]

take a look at the dmesg output from the knoppix cd.
you can also compare the kernel configs (/proc/config.gz), maybe like this

[ichbins]

the output of dmesg can be found at http://gas-werk.org/dmesg.txt

the .config at http://gas-werk.org/eselect_config.txt

[alex.blackbit]

a .config file does not necessarily reflect the options of the running kernel.
always use /proc/config.gz to get information about the running kernel.
grep in the dmesg output of the knoppix cd to see what output you should get under gentoo.
from looking at your dmesg output i would say that your running kernel does not have the aacraid driver.

[ichbins]

why you think so?

aacraid is compiled in the Kernel und lspci is listening the Controller Card. So why do you think there is no aacraid driver in the kernel?

[ichbins]

# zcat /proc/config.gz | grep AAC
# CONFIG_SCSI_AACRAID is not set


You are right! But why the hell? I have compiled it in for shure! .. So what could I do ?

[ichbins]

ok! Now the Kernel have aacraid compiled in and it works.

thank you

[ichbins]

Now I m interested in how to view the temperatur of each harddisk !?.

Does anybody know how?

Hddtemp can't see each harddisk und the tool from adaptec arcconf .. is saying "smart: no" on each device.

I wonder how I can manage this!?

[ichbins]

People from the adaptec support told me that there is no way to display the smart information from the disks if there is no tool from the manufactorer of the Harddisk.