MPT driver installation on Debian 4.0 to support HP SC44Ge SAS host bus adaptor

fireball1974 · 04-26-2008, 09:03 AM

I'm trying to get my Debian 4.0 system to recognize a SAS host bus adaptor,
the HP SC44Ge. The HBA requires an mpt (aka mptlinux) driver.

I did the following:
# modprobe mptsas
to install the driver.

Without actually connecting a SAS device, is there any way to tell if the driver and HBA are compatible? (I don't want to buy the tape drive unless I can get the HBA working.)

JMCraig · 04-29-2008, 02:18 PM

I'm having a similar issue with the mpt driver for an SAS controller on a Supermicro board (it's the LSI 1068E controller--that HP is probably an OEM version of an LSI controller). What we've discovered is that the supplied mpt driver doesn't support the controller in question (it appears to only support other models)--try:

modinfo mptsas

to see if you can get a list of supported controllers (you may need to find out who HP is getting their controller from, but it sure sounds like an LSI).

LSI does make their source code available and we tried building the driver but when it attempts to load it, we get a missing symbol error:

Apr 29 06:35:27 localhost kernel: Fusion MPT base driver 4.00.21.00
Apr 29 06:35:27 localhost kernel: Copyright (c) 1999-2007 LSI Corporation
Apr 29 06:40:22 localhost kernel: mptsas: Unknown symbol scsi_is_sas_phy_local

Not sure what to do next. I've posted a question in the hardware forum on this, but haven't had any responses yet.

I note that your editing note says you "made some progress" with it. What did you figure out?

John

farslayer · 04-29-2008, 03:05 PM

Would have helped to know the model number of the server. you can use HP's Linux compatibility chart to figure most of the compatibility questions out.. Debian 4 installed without a hitch on my HP's built in SAS controller.

http://h18004.www1.hp.com/products/q.../12617_na.html - Compatible tape drives for this controller are listed here..
http://h71028.www7.hp.com/enterprise...0-0-0-121.html - Debian support for particular servers.

you could use lshw to look at the controller and see if it's using the driver..

Code:

           *-storage
                description: RAID bus controller
                product: Hewlett-Packard Smart Array Controller
                vendor: Hewlett-Packard Company
                physical id: 0
                bus info: pci@06:00.0
                version: 01
                width: 64 bits
                clock: 33MHz
                capabilities: storage bus_master cap_list
                configuration: driver=cciss latency=0
                resources: iomemory:fde00000-fdefffff ioport:4000-40ff iomemory:fddf0000-fddf0fff irq:169

run modinfo on the module to see if it's the right unit..

Code:

mail:~# modinfo cciss
filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.18-6-686/kernel/drivers/block/cciss.ko
author:         Hewlett-Packard Company
description:    Driver for HP Controller SA5xxx SA6xxx version 3.6.10
license:        GPL
vermagic:       2.6.18-6-686 SMP mod_unload 686 REGPARM gcc-4.1
depends:        scsi_mod
alias:          pci:v00000E11d0000B060sv00000E11sd00004070bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d0000B178sv00000E11sd00004080bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d0000B178sv00000E11sd00004082bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d0000B178sv00000E11sd00004083bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d00000046sv00000E11sd00004091bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d00000046sv00000E11sd0000409Abc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d00000046sv00000E11sd0000409Bbc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d00000046sv00000E11sd0000409Cbc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v00000E11d00000046sv00000E11sd0000409Dbc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003220sv0000103Csd00003225bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003230sv0000103Csd00003223bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003230sv0000103Csd00003234bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003230sv0000103Csd00003235bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003238sv0000103Csd00003211bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003238sv0000103Csd00003212bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003238sv0000103Csd00003213bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003238sv0000103Csd00003214bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003238sv0000103Csd00003215bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd00003230sv0000103Csd00003237bc*sc*i*
alias:          pci:v0000103Cd*sv*sd*bc01sc04i*

you could also install mpt-status

Code:

default@it-etch:~$  aptitude search mpt-status
p   mpt-status       - get RAID status out of mpt (and other) HW RAID controllers

See what happens when I step out for a minute. Someone beats me to the reply

fireball1974 · 04-30-2008, 05:31 PM

Thank you John and farslayer for your helpful posts.

My HBA is indeed an HP private label of the LSI Logic SAS1068E, as suggested by John. My server is a Tyan S5211 motherboard running Debian 4.0 AMD64.

lspci now shows that the HBA is being recognized by the motherboard. I installed mpt-status as per farslayer's suggestion. I get the following output when I run mpt-status:

Code:

You seem to have no SCSI disks attached to your HBA or you have
them on a different scsi_id. To get your SCSI id, run:

    mpt-status -p

This is expected, because I have not connected any devices to the HBA.

My remaining question is: Does the above output from mpt-status indicate that the HBA is correctly installed (and that the drivers are compatible)?

I wanted to test the HBA integration before spending the money to buy the LTO-3 tape drive (although I already went ahead and ordered it based on these encouraging results).

Thanks again for your help!

farslayer · 04-30-2008, 07:06 PM

I would think if mpt-status could not talk to the card via it's driver, the output of the command would have been a bit different..

just for kicks I installed mpt-status on my machine and this is the output I received

Quote:

debianetch:~# modprobe mptctl
debianetch:~# modprobe mptsas

debianetch:~# mpt-status
MPI_FUNCTION_CONFIG (get page header): No such device

so it looks like it's seeing the your card just fine.

yeah my test is a bit weak, but your results definitely look positive.

fireball1974 · 05-02-2008, 05:46 PM

I purchased an HP StorageWorks Ultrium 920 External SAS tape drive to the HBA described earlier in this thread. When I do mpt-status the response indicates that Linux does *not* see the drive.

Does anyone have suggestions on things to try to diagnose the problem?

farslayer · 05-02-2008, 08:40 PM

has a proper ID been assigned to the external drive ?

Has the SCSI chain been terminated properly ? (I haven't dealt with external SAS devices yet, but all SCSI chains I have ever worked with required proper termination)

Is the BIOS on the SCSI controller enabled ? disabled ? can the card see the drive ?
I know with Adaptec controllers yu can hit CTRL+A at boot time to enter the Card and view the attached devices.. does this HP card do something similar ?

HP drive and HP HBA running on Debian.. these are all things that are supported by HP, You could always try giving them a call..

mrbscreen · 10-08-2008, 04:53 AM

Hello fireball1974,

the last entry in this thread is a long time ago.

The question I have, have you got running the "HP StorageWorks Ultrium 920 External SAS" on the SC44Ge HBA. Or are there some problems left?

I also bought the SC44Ge HAB and I want to order the Ultrium.

Regards
mrbscreen

fireball1974 · 10-08-2008, 11:33 PM

This configuration has been working reliably for me for some time now.

mrbscreen · 10-09-2008, 01:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by fireball1974

This configuration has been working reliably for me for some time now.

Thank you for the fast answer!

berimbau · 06-01-2011, 03:52 AM

Hi all, I know that it's been a while, this post has not been replied but I have the same problem!
I bought a HP SC44Ge Host Bus Adapter and a LTO Tape drive Tandberg Data that I plugged on The SC44Ge SAS port!
But I Can't see the drive!
Here is the dmesg part for Fusion-MPT driver :

Code:

[    0.806879] Fusion MPT SAS Host driver 3.04.12
[    0.806903] mptsas 0000:05:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 16 (level, low) -> IRQ 16
[    0.806958] mptbase: ioc0: Initiating bringup
[    0.806961] mptbase: ioc0: WARNING - IOC is in FAULT state!!!
[    0.806962] mptbase: ioc0: WARNING -            FAULT code = 8011h

Code:

[   61.148017] mptbase: ioc0: ERROR - Failed to come READY after reset! IocState=40000000
[   69.148016] mptbase: ioc0: WARNING - NOT READY WARNING!
[   69.148065] mptbase: ioc0: ERROR - didn't initialize properly! (-1)
[   69.148157] mptsas: probe of 0000:05:00.0 failed with error -1

And the lspci output :

Code:

05:00.0 SCSI storage controller: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic SAS1068E PCI-Express Fusion-MPT SAS (rev 08)

My Distribution is a Debian Squeeze(stable) with a kernel 2.6.32 for x86_64

I googled around, and found nothing to solve it!maybe someone here can help me!

Thank you!

JMCraig · 06-01-2011, 08:47 AM

Sorry, not much help here--clearly the driver isn't loading and initializing on your gear. Back when I first posted to this thread, I eventually gave up and installed Red Hat because Supermicro claimed to fully support Red Hat. Later on, I tried to update the RH kernel and lost the ability to see the RAID array, so I just dropped back to the older kernel. Since then, I've been stuck on that old version because I just haven't had the time to work on the problem--it's getting kind of urgent to be able to update it and, I'm on the hook to figure this out for a client who's buying an application that I support on hardware that has the (infamous) 1068E SAS controller--so I'll get to figure that out--unless I can convince them to go with a 3Ware controller.

Here's the LSI page for the 1068E controller:

http://www.lsi.com/storage_home/prod...ex.html#Driver

As I recall, from the last time I messed with this at all, you can also (now) set up the driver using DKMS to rebuild the driver for a new kernel (that's what I'm hoping will allow it to work with Ubuntu). That's an approach you might try. In any case, I'd get the full package from LSI and see if you can make it from source or get it set up for DKMS to build the driver.

John

Best of luck with this. It's annoying because the 3Ware side of LSI has really great Linux support. But, you should be able to get the source for the 1068E and at least try building the driver from that. Unfortunately, this level of tinkering is not something I have much fluency with--so I end up having to figure things out anew each time it comes up.

berimbau · 06-01-2011, 09:19 AM

Thank you for your quick reply!
I've tried to recompile the module with the kernel 2.6.38 on debian squeeze. I've encountred some issues with a "init_MUTEX" error, after that I changed init_MUTEX to sema_init, and the compilation goes well!
but the result was the same :s

I will see if I can try DKMS to rebuild the driver.