Any success w/ Promise TX4000 RAID Controller (or even SX4000)?

JMCraig · 03-17-2003, 06:26 PM

Hi Folks,

Promise's data sheet says:

The FastTrak TX4000 supports Windows XP/2000/NT/Me/9x; RedHat Linux, and SuSE Linux.

Anyone tried it on RH 7.2, 7.3, or 8.0?

I'm planning to get the TX4000 and run RAID 0+1 and since that is a subset of the SX4000's functionality, any experience w/ that card might be useful to know about as well.

Uh, did it work?

Thanks,

John

mcleodnine · 03-19-2003, 02:12 AM

AVOID PROMISE SX SERIES RAID CARDS

The boss dropped off a brand new FastTrak SX4000 on me this afternoon. Cool!

Well... So far I have not been able to find any drivers for Slackware 8.1 and all the binary drivers published by Promise so far are full of warnings about installing them on systems for which they are not built. In other words, unless you have an Outdated (RedHat 7.2/7.3, SuSE 7.3/8.0) distribution you are left in the cold. Stock kernel? No RAID for you! No mention on what will happen if you were to upgrade your kernel on the above distros.

Way to go Promise! Yet another complete waste of my time. They should be a excersize a little more caution about using the term "Linux" in ANY of their promotional material and compatibility lists. If I am reading the LIMITED Linux documentation correctly

Quote:

Linux Operating Systems
Go to the Promise website at http://www.promise.com, click on Support, then Linux Support, to obtain drivers and installation instructions

Surprise! No links like that appear.

Drill down and you will find that the only source code available is for the SuperTrak SX6000 and the installation procedure and instructions are little more than a cruel hoax.

If you see a Promise card walking down the street - Run Away before it bites you on the ass.

Buy a 3Ware Escalade. I'm looking for one tomorrow and I'll be happy to return the Promise POS even if it means paying a restocking fee.

JMCraig · 03-19-2003, 11:38 AM

I take it then, you've had good luck with 3Ware's RAID cards....

And thanks for the info!

mcleodnine · 03-19-2003, 03:58 PM

Not yet - I'm still trying to get one locally, but I've only read good things about them- especially Linux support.

Still haggling with the vendor about returning the Promise card... :-/

Lou Langholtz · 03-28-2003, 06:10 PM

I just got the TX4000 board. From the Promise website, I was able to traverse links to download a driver for RedHat 8.0 linux kernel 2.4.18-14 (which is what comes on the RedHat 8.0 CD I have). I have not been able to get this driver to work under the newer kernel updates however using 2.4.18-24.8.0. The boot said something like mismatched symbols. I sent their support folks an email requesting advice. My suspision (fear) is that they may not be interested enough in supporting linux however to build some drivers for newer updates. Hopefully I'm wrong.

mcleodnine · 03-28-2003, 06:34 PM

Coupla questions... is the new kernel you installed an RPM supplied from RedHat (look like it but I want to make sure) or a source build? This was my greatest fear of setting up a server with the promise series of RAID controllers. Sure I can install SuSE or Red Hat Versions that match their drivers, but what happens when I update the kernel?

What is your output when you type in 'uname -a' ?

Do you get the mismatched symbol error when you try to load the driver for the Promise card or at a different part of the boot?

Do you feel as ripped off as I do?

confucioussayso · 04-09-2003, 12:10 PM

Did a lot of research trying to find the SX4000 drivers for redhat 8. Also spent a lot of time trying to get the 7.2 & 7.3 drivers working with 8, but had no luck. I e-mailed promise support a few days ago and they were kind enough to send me a beta driver for redhat 8. I haven't tried it out yet, but they say it works. I have posted it on driver guide at the link below. Let me know how it turns out.

http://www2.driverguide.com/uploads/...s19/23522.html

Peace, Love, And Jelly Beans,

Confucious Say

blinky_au · 04-22-2003, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mcleodnine

Do you feel as ripped off as I do?

Yes I do!!!

Everything said so far about the SX4000 is true! They are bad bad bad evil Promise people sent to cause Linux users high amounts of hair loss.
I too, can not return mine as it does work in RedHat 7.3 as they said it would....

But if you mod the kernel or use a different kernel than the module is compiled against you're stuffed. I have battled with promise at three different countries (being nice as possible) but to no avail. They will not release the source driver code to allow recompiling.

I do however, have working driver images for RedHat 8.0 and SuSE 8.1 if anybody needs them.

It has been stated before: The first rule for a Linux user when buying a piece of Promise hardware is DON'T!

gorans · 04-26-2003, 05:37 AM

could you plz send me these drivers or post a link for a download, i'd be very happy .... :)

-gorans-

blinky_au · 04-27-2003, 01:34 AM

Please, try to get it from support@promise.com first so they know people do want these drivers!
If you feel "ripped-off" like I do - good! e-mail Promise and tell them, maybe if they hear enough complaints they will do something.

If users do nothing, so will Promise(do nothing) - it's your choice !

Red Hat 8.0 drivers which do work fine.

Cheers.

SteakMan · 05-23-2003, 12:15 PM

Hey, I just found this thread from a google search, I don't expect to come back, so if you want some help, send an e-mail to:

junk at moah dot com

The supplied drivers work fine in Red Hat 8.x and 9.0, you just have to load the modules with -f to ignore the warnings. Don't use their install scripts.

If you want to install the OS on the RAID array, you will need to modify the intrd. And modify it each time you let Red Hat upgarde your kernel.

I created the two following scripts to recompile initrd:

Code:

initrdfix1:
#!/bin/bash
rm /tmp/myimage
rm /tmp/myimage.gz
cat /boot/initrd-2.4.20-9.img |gunzip > /tmp/myimage
mount /tmp/myimage /mnt/tmp -t ext2 -o loop=/dev/loop3
cp /data/raid/ft3xx.o /mnt/tmp/lib/ft3xx.o
cp /lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/drivers/scsi/scsi_mod.o /mnt/tmp/lib/scsi_mod.o
cp /lib/modules/2.4.20-9/kernel/drivers/scsi/sd_mod.o /mnt/tmp/lib/sd_mod.o
echo "Edit /mnt/tmp/linuxrc with:"
echo "echo \"Loading scsi_mod.o module\""
echo "insmod /lib/scsi_mod.o"
echo "echo \"Loading sd_mod.o module\""
echo "insmod /lib/sd_mod.o"
echo "echo \"Loading ft3xx.o module\""
echo "insmod -f /lib/ft3xx.o"

Edit your linuxrc to look something like this:

Code:

#!/bin/nash
echo "Loading scsi_mod.o module"
insmod /lib/scsi_mod.o
echo "Loading sd_mod.o module"
insmod /lib/sd_mod.o
echo "Loading ft3xx.o module"
insmod -f /lib/ft3xx.o
echo "Loading jbd.o module"
insmod /lib/jbd.o 
echo "Loading ext3.o module"
insmod /lib/ext3.o 
echo Mounting /proc filesystem
mount -t proc /proc /proc
echo Creating block devices
mkdevices /dev
echo Creating root device
mkrootdev /dev/root
echo 0x0100 > /proc/sys/kernel/real-root-dev
echo Mounting root filesystem
mount -o defaults --ro -t ext3 /dev/root /sysroot
pivot_root /sysroot /sysroot/initrd
umount /initrd/proc

Code:

initrdfix2:
#!/bin/bash
umount /mnt/tmp
gzip /tmp/myimage
cp /boot/initrd-2.4.20-9.img /boot/initrd-2.4.20-9.img_bak
cp /tmp/myimage.gz /boot/initrd-2.4.20-9.img

I put the two scripts along with ft3xx.o in /data/raid. Make sure you edit your paths as needed and trust me, do not do this to a production server. Do it to a test server a couple times before you find out you have hosed your server.

I installed RH9.0 on a normal ext3 partition, followed these steps, installed the card and another drive, let the machine boot up, let the card mirror the drives, and now my / partition is on /dev/sda1.

Using Lilo, you should edit lilo.conf after these steps, before you boot. Grub should pick it up automatically, but I did have to edit my /etc/fstab

Good Luck!
-SteakMan-

mcleodnine · 05-23-2003, 12:28 PM

Thanks for the info, although I dont think we should be looking to good luck when dealing with RAID cards or airplanes.

Any reports on behaviour when a drive in the array fails and is subsequently replaced?

SteakMan · 05-23-2003, 01:14 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by mcleodnine
Thanks for the info, although I dont think we should be looking to good luck when dealing with RAID cards or airplanes.

Any reports on behaviour when a drive in the array fails and is subsequently replaced?

Works great! I forced the situation to test, and I actually had a real failure to deal with too.

My only complaint is that the card's BIOS checks the health status on boot. If there is a problem, it stops and waits for you to hit f1 to enter the configuration or [esc] to boot. There may be a way around that but I haven't really looked.

It took about 50 minutes to rebuild the new drive on a 500MHz Athalon. You have the option of not doing the copy right away, but I don't know if it would then build it in the background, I didn't try.

IIRC, you can also have a fail-over spare drive.

-SteakMan-

LowellL · 06-26-2003, 11:56 AM

Does anyone have the SUSE 8.1 SX4000 drivers? Thanks in advance!

guest · 07-07-2003, 03:47 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by LowellL
Does anyone have the SUSE 8.1 SX4000 drivers? Thanks in advance!

http://www.promise.com/support/file/...v1.00.0.14.zip