Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
MRSAS(4)		    Kernel Interfaces Manual		      MRSAS(4)

NAME
       mrsas --	LSI MegaRAID 6Gb/s and 12Gb/s SAS+SATA RAID controller driver

SYNOPSIS
       To  compile  this  driver into the kernel, place	the following lines in
       your kernel configuration file:

	     device pci
	     device mrsas

       Alternatively, to load the driver as a module at	boot time,  place  the
       following line in loader.conf(5):

	     mrsas_load="YES"

DESCRIPTION
       The  mrsas  driver will detect LSI's next generation (6Gb/s and 12Gb/s)
       PCI Express SAS/SATA RAID controllers.  See the	HARDWARE  section  for
       the  supported  devices	list.  A disk (virtual disk/physical disk) at-
       tached to the  mrsas  driver  will  be  visible	to  the	 user  through
       camcontrol(8)  as /dev/da? device nodes.	 A simple management interface
       is also provided	on a per-controller basis via the  /dev/mrsas?	device
       node.

       The  mrsas name is derived from the phrase "MegaRAID SAS	HBA", which is
       substantially different than the	old  "MegaRAID"	 Driver	 mfi(4)	 which
       does  not  connect  targets to the cam(4) layer and thus	requires a new
       driver which attaches targets to	the cam(4) layer.  Older MegaRAID con-
       trollers	are supported by mfi(4)	and will not work with mrsas, but both
       the mfi(4) and mrsas drivers can	detect and manage the LSI MegaRAID SAS
       2208/2308/3008/3108 series of controllers.

       The device.hints(5) option is provided to tune the mrsas	 driver's  be-
       havior  for  LSI	 MegaRAID SAS 2208/2308/3008/3108 controllers.	By de-
       fault, the mfi(4)  driver  will	detect	these  controllers.   See  the
       PRIORITY	 section  to know more about driver priority for MR-Fusion de-
       vices.

       mrsas will provide a priority of	(-30) (between	BUS_PROBE_DEFAULT  and
       BUS_PROBE_LOW_PRIORITY)	at  probe call for device id's 0x005B, 0x005D,
       and 0x005F so that mrsas	does not take control of these devices without
       user intervention.

       Solid-state drives (SSD)	get ATA	TRIM support with mrsas	if  underlying
       adapter	allows it.  This may require configuring SSD as	Non-RAID drive
       rather then JBOD	virtual	mode.

HARDWARE
       The mrsas driver	supports the following hardware:

       [ Thunderbolt 6Gb/s MR controller ]
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9265
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9266
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9267
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9270
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9271
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9272
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9285
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9286
          DELL	PERC H810
          DELL	PERC H710/P

       [ Invader/Fury 12Gb/s MR	controller ]
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9380
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9361
          LSI MegaRAID	SAS 9341
          DELL	PERC H830
          DELL	PERC H730/P
          DELL	PERC H330

CONFIGURATION
       To disable Online Controller Reset(OCR) for a specific mrsas driver in-
       stance, set the following tunable value in loader.conf(5):

	     dev.mrsas.X.disable_ocr=1

       where X is the adapter number.

       To change the I/O timeout value for a specific mrsas  driver  instance,
       set the following tunable value in loader.conf(5):

	     dev.mrsas.X.mrsas_io_timeout=NNNNNN

       where NNNNNN is the timeout value in milli-seconds.

       To  change  the	firmware  fault	check timer value for a	specific mrsas
       driver instance,	set the	following tunable value	in loader.conf(5):

	     dev.mrsas.X.mrsas_fw_fault_check_delay=NN

       where NN	is the fault check delay value in seconds.

       The  current  number  of	 active	 I/O  commands	 is   shown   in   the
       dev.mrsas.X.fw_outstanding sysctl(8) variable.

DEBUGGING
       To   enable   debugging	 prints	  from	 the  mrsas  driver,  set  the
       hw.mrsas.X.debug_level variable,	where X	is the adapter number,	either
       in  loader.conf(5)  or  via sysctl(8).  The following bits have the de-
       scribed effects:

	     0x01    Enable informational prints.

	     0x02    Enable tracing prints.

	     0x04    Enable prints for driver faults.

	     0x08    Enable prints for OCR and I/O timeout.

	     0x10    Enable prints for AEN events.

PRIORITY
       The mrsas driver	will always set	a default (-30)	priority  in  the  PCI
       subsystem   for	 selection   of	  MR-Fusion  cards.   (It  is  between
       BUS_PROBE_DEFAULT and BUS_PROBE_LOW_PRIORITY).	MR-Fusion  Controllers
       include all cards with the Device IDs - 0x005B, 0x005D, 0x005F.

       The  mfi(4)  driver  will set a priority	of either BUS_PROBE_DEFAULT or
       BUS_PROBE_LOW_PRIORITY (depending on the	device.hints setting)  in  the
       PCI  subsystem for selection of MR-Fusion cards.	 With the above	design
       in place, the mfi(4) driver will	attach to a MR-Fusion card given  that
       it has a	higher priority	than mrsas.

       Using  /boot/device.hints  (as mentioned	below),	the user can provide a
       preference for the mrsas	driver to detect a MR-Fusion card  instead  of
       the mfi(4) driver.

	     hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="1"

       At  boot	 time, the mfi(4) driver will get priority to detect MR-Fusion
       controllers by default.	Before changing	this default driver  selection
       policy, LSI advises users to understand how the driver selection	policy
       works.  LSI's policy is to provide priority to the mfi(4) driver	to de-
       tect  MR-Fusion	cards,	but  allow for the ability to choose the mrsas
       driver to detect	MR-Fusion cards.

       LSI recommends setting hw.mfi.mrsas_enable="0" for  customers  who  are
       using  the older	mfi(4) driver and do not want to switch	to mrsas.  For
       those customers who are using a	MR-Fusion  controller  for  the	 first
       time,  LSI  recommends  using  the  mrsas driver	and setting hw.mfi.mr-
       sas_enable="1".

       Changing	the default behavior is	well tested under most conditions, but
       unexpected behavior may pop up if more complex and  unrealistic	opera-
       tions  are  executed  by	switching between the mfi(4) and mrsas drivers
       for MR-Fusion.  Switching drivers is designed to	happen only one	 time.
       Although	 multiple  switching  is possible, it is not recommended.  The
       user should decide from Start of	Day which driver they want to use  for
       the MR-Fusion card.

       The  user  may see different device names when switching	from mfi(4) to
       mrsas.  This behavior is	Functions As Designed and the  user  needs  to
       change  the  fstab(5)  entry manually if	they are doing any experiments
       with mfi(4) and mrsas interoperability.

FILES
       /dev/da?	    array/logical disk interface
       /dev/mrsas?  management interface

SEE ALSO
       cam(4), mfi(4), pci(4), device.hints(5),	camcontrol(8)

HISTORY
       The mrsas driver	first appeared in FreeBSD 10.1.

       mfi Driver: mfi(4) is the old FreeBSD driver which started with support
       for Gen-1 Controllers and was extended to support up to MR-Fusion (De-
       vice ID = 0x005B, 0x005D, 0x005F).

       mrsas Driver: mrsas is the new driver reworked by LSI which supports
       Thunderbolt and onward products.	 The SAS+SATA RAID controller with de-
       vice id 0x005b is referred to as	the Thunderbolt	controller throughout
       this man	page.

       cam aware HBA drivers: FreeBSD has a cam(4) layer which attaches	stor-
       age devices and provides	a common access	mechanism to storage con-
       trollers	and attached devices.  The mrsas driver	is cam(4) aware	and
       devices associated with mrsas can be seen using camcontrol(8).  The
       mfi(4) driver does not understand the cam(4) layer and it directly as-
       sociates	storage	disks to the block layer.

       Thunderbolt Controller: This is the 6Gb/s MegaRAID HBA card which has
       device id 0x005B.

       Invader Controller: This	is 12Gb/s MegaRAID HBA card which has device
       id 0x005D.

       Fury Controller:	This is	the 12Gb/s MegaRAID HBA	card which has device
       id 0x005F.

AUTHORS
       The mrsas driver	and this manual	page were  written  by	Kashyap	 Desai
       <Kashyap.Desai@lsi.com>.

TODO
       The  driver does	not support alias for device name (it is required when
       the user	switches between  two  drivers	and  does  not	want  to  edit
       /etc/fstab manually).

       The  mrsas  driver  exposes devices as /dev/da?,	whereas	mfi(4) exposes
       devices as /dev/mfid?.

       mrsas does not support the Linux	Emulator interface.

       mrsas will not work with	mfiutil(8).

FreeBSD	14.3		       February	4, 2021			      MRSAS(4)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=mrsas&sektion=4&manpath=FreeBSD+14.3-RELEASE+and+Ports>

home | help