Promise on-board RAID on Linux

I have motherboard MSI 845PE MAX2-FIR with integrated
Promise ATA133 RAID. Driver for Linux from 2.4.21 kernel
works, but not like RAID. I only see 2 disks (/dev/hde & /dev/hdg),
but it's not RAID (mirroring). Is there a possible solution? Is there a driver fo hardware RAID?

Hi,
I'm trying to find the linux drivers for this raid controler.
Can you help me for this.
Quote
Originally posted by bd_ucw
I have motherboard MSI 845PE MAX2-FIR with integrated
Promise ATA133 RAID. Driver for Linux from 2.4.21 kernel
works, but not like RAID. I only see 2 disks (/dev/hde & /dev/hdg),
but it\'s not RAID (mirroring). Is there a possible solution? Is there a driver fo hardware RAID?

Similar Messages

Promise 378 SATA Raid question

Can someone tell me if my SATA drives are setup correctly given the details below? The only driver that works is the FastTrak 378 (not the SATA 378 driver). I want to make sure I am taking full advantage of my SATA drives. In the Promise setup it shows them operating as "Mode U5". What is this?
Any help appreciated.
My Drive COnfiguration is as follows:
SATA Drives are on SATA3 & SATA4 (Promise 378 Controller)
(as RAID 0 for performance)
Primary IDE Master - Sony DVD/RW
Primary IDE Slave - not used
Secondary IDE Master - ASUS DVD ROM
Secondary IDE Slave - ATA 133 Drive bay (Empty)
3rd IDE Master&Slave - not used
On Board Promise settings
FastTrak 378 BIOS Ver 1.00.0.27
2+0 Stripe - Functional
HIT CTRL+F for setup and
(in the setup it shows RAID 0 Drive Array as Mode U5)
Bios Settings
Boot Device Priority
1 - Floppy
2 - ASUS DVD ROM
3 - BBS-0(RAID):FT 378 Ary 1
On Board Promise IDE - As RAID
On Chip ATA's Operation Mode - Legacy Mode
ATA Configuration - PATA only
SATA Keep enabled - no
* PATA Keep enabled - no
PATA channel selection - both
* Combined Mode Option - PATA First Channel
* SATA Ports Definition - P0-3rd/P1-4th
* Configure SATA as Raid - no
(where * is greyed out)
Bios sees both DVD ROM & Sony DVD/RW
Boot to CDROM
Start Windows 2000 install
F6
"S"
load Promise FastTrak 378 Controller
Windows 2000 setup continues...

Everything looks good to me. Like Danny said though, you will need to change Bios to "Native Mode" for the Intel controller if you ever intend to use the Serial connectors. If not you're fine.
Also it's not clear from your post if you understand that you are using the 2 SATA drives as a Raid array. This gives you better drive performance but increases the chance of losing data. MAKE REGULAR BACKUPS.
The Promise SATA drivers are for using the Serial1&2, IDE3 connectors with single/separate drives where Raid arrays are not used.

On-board RAID and PCI RAID controller

Hello everybody,
I am new to the forum. So, please excuse me if that topic was already covered...
I have MSI MAX2-LR (MS-6398E) board. It works just fine, no problem so far. Though I have 2 problems with add-on cards:
1. I was planning to use on-board RAID and additional PCI RAID controller = FastTrack 100 TX2 to cover 6 hard drives into 2 mirrored sets: 4drives one and 2 drives the other.
It doesn't work! I can use either on-board RAID or PCI RAID. As soon as I have any drive connected to on-board RAID, the PCI RAID disappeares. If I have no drives connected to on-board RAID, I can see both RAID controllers, they have different I/O and IRQs, and PCI RAID is working just fine. If only I connect one drive to the on-board RAID, it gets activated on startup, and the other one disappeares. :O
I believe it's a BIOS bug. I wander, if that can be fixed easily????? :D
2. I have a new Matrox Video card = Parhelia. It doesn't work in AGP slot! System doesn't recognize it, and beeps non-stop. I am dealing with Matrox Tech Support on that matter. ?(
Maybe, it's a known issue, and somebody can save me time by telling what's that about.
Appreciate any imput. Have a great weekend.!!! :]

Hey I also have the same Raid card and also the Matrox Parhelia, and I see that you also have some problems with the card I got also problems with the card, but they couldnt help me at theire forums (http://forum.matrox.com/mgaforum/Forum10/HTML/005085.html), I hope we have got more luck here :D

Transferring from XRaid to Promise Pegasus Thunderbolt RAID

We have an XRaid connected by fibre to an XServe running OSX Server 10.4.11. This is being replaced by a Mac Mini running Lion Server 10.7.3 with a Promise Pegasus 12TB Raid connected to it by Thunderbolt.
What I would like some advice with is, how best to transfer all the data (approximately 3TB) off the existing XRaid and onto the new Pegasus Raid without creating problems with permissions.
The approach that I was planning to use was to attach the XRaid to a Promise SANLink and in turn connect that via Thunderbolt to the available 2nd Thunderbolt connection. I am hoping this will then display the XRaid on the the Mac Mini as well as the Promise Pegasus. I then intend to drag the data from the old XRaid to the Promise Pegasus.
Can anybody tell me whether this will work OK?
Thanks in advance.

Depending on your set-up, you could have both on your network and use Terminal to copy from on server to the other. Using the ditto command will preserve permission information. Syntax / info can be found towards the very end of this page: http://www.mactech.com/articles/mactech/Vol.23/23.10/2310MacInTheShell/index.htm l

Question K8N neo2 on-board RAID

Would the on-board RAID 0 setup be faster then a raid controller card with RAID 0? This is on a K8N Neo 2 motherboard.

In theory that controller card would be a better choice if it could be run in 64bits/66mhz
, but there are some other factors to be aware of and it comes to how many disks you utilize on the controller card .
Another thing in general is that raid cards performance differs a lot based on design and the controller it use .
On the other hand , concerning bandwith :
The nvidia ports is chip integrated and doesn't run from the pci bus that has a limiting total bandwith factor .
Though you must be aware of that the K8N series nvidia cards has:
Five 32-bit v2.3 Master PCI bus slots
So if slapping in a 66mhz 64bit card , if it works it would probably be running in 32bits/33mhz mode and reduce
the bandwith that can be utilized to 133mb/s (about 128 in pracsis) and it would be shared bandwith
with all other pci devices and IDE (buildt in on mobo like ide/sound/usb/fw .. and slot-in cards) .
Regards

RD330 - using PCIe-based SSD and on-board RAID controller at the same time?

I've got a RD330 (4304-E1U) with the on-motherboard RAID controller and an OCZ Z-Drive R4 PCIe-based SSD. Basically the SSD looks to the system like a PCIe SATA controller with a single SATA disk attached. If I leave the on-board RAID disabled in the BIOS (Setup -> Advanced -> Sata/SAS Configuration -> Disable SCU Devices=ENABLED), then the system sees the OCZ drive just fine and I can select it as my boot device. Works like a champ, screaming fast.
I *also* need access to the disks attached to the built-in SAS backplane on the server, but if the on-board RAID is turned off, then you can't access those disks. When you go into the BIOS setup and turn on the on-board RAID (Setup -> Advanced -> SATA/SAS Configuration -> Disable SCU Devices=DISABLED), then the LSI RAID array configuration shows up during POST (as expected) but the OCZ messages do NOT appear during POST, and the OCZ no longer shows up in the BIOS as a boot device. It's like the SSD isn't even there when the on-board RAID is turned on.
I don't really need any RAID functionality on those disks, I just need access to them from the OS, but I need to boot from the SSD in the PCIe slot. Is there a way for both the on-board RAID controller *AND* an additional PCIe disk controller to be active at the same time?

I have had a 2.0 USB hub connected to the USP port on my AEBS for almost a year for a printer and a HD. Initially I had intermittent connectivity to the HD but never the printer. As Apple upgraded the software/firmware for the AEBS, the problems have stopped. Reliability has been 100% for several months. Go for it.
Regards,
Brian

AT-GPIB/TNT board driver with linux kernel 2.2.16

I have installed AT-GPIB/TNT board to my linux computer. I downloaded the driver 0.5.1 from ni web site, installed with no problem.
First I used Window98 OS to test my hardware setup. My GPIB board is connect HP E3632A DC Power supply. I can use window version's ibic to run ibfind, ibdev, ibwrt, ibrd. Then I booted to linux, load the drive. But when I run ibwrt, give "EBUS" error. I used small test program to verify that I would get the same error. But I couldn't get it from Windows.
Where is my problem? inside the driver? or linux driver setup?
Thank you in advance
Allyson

Version 0.6 of the BETA driver is available at:
http://www.ni.com/linux
See if this new release gives you better performance
Ryan Mosley

[VIA] Cannot Boot From SATA PCI Controller With On Board RAID Enabled

Hi.
I have a KT3 ULTRA 2 with onboard RAID controller. I have installed a SUNIX 2 port SATA PCI Controller which works perfectly & appears in the selectable boot devices. This is not a problem except for the fact that I have 4 devices on the On-Board Raid Controller. When the on-board raid controller is enabled, the SATA device dissapears from the boot options & I can no longer boot from the SATA controller.
Any help is greatly appreciated.
Many Thanks

I had already tried that....
I set the boot sequence to use the SATA card & then renabled the on-board raid, but after reboot the sata card is not available as a possible boot device & asks me to insert system disk...even if the boot sequence is set to boot from other devices.
Really annoyying this, looks like I am going to have to get a different motherboard for something so silly. I am already at the latest bios release.

K7T266 Pro2 RU, Raid-0 & Linux

When I try to install either Red Hat 8.0 or Mandrake 9.0 on my K7T266 Pro2 RU, which has 2 x 40GB drives configured as RAID-0 (ie 1 x 80GB), both versions of Linux see the two physical drives and not the one logical stripe array. Why? It almost seems that the Linux drivers for the Promise 20265R are treating the raid channels and normal IDE channels. I want to install Linux onto the RAID-0 stripe!
I have searched for guides/tutorials on installing Linux on RAID, but all the ones I found only talked about RAID-1 (Mirroring).
Windows 2000/XP only sees the one logical drive.
Any help would be appreciated!
Chris.

The installer is wrecking the /etc/raidtab file when trying to detect existing raid arrays.
Solution: Format a floppy disk with a DOS filesystem (in Linux, you can use the command "mkdosfs /dev/fd0"). Copy
use detect_devices;
package detect_devices;
log::l("PATCHING");
*raidAutoStartRaidtab = sub {
my (@parts) = @_;
log::l("patched raidAutoStartRaidtab");
$::isInstall or return;
require raid;
#- faking a raidtab, it seems to be working )
#- (choosing any inactive md)
raid::inactivate_all();
foreach (@parts) {
   my ($nb) = grep { !raid::is_active("md$_") } 0..7;
   output("/tmp/raidtab", "raiddev /dev/md$nb\n device " . devices::make($_->{device}) . "\n");
   run_program::run('raidstart', '-c', "/tmp/raidtab", devices::make("md$nb"));
unlink "/tmp/raidtab";
use raid;
package raid;
*prepare_prefixed = sub {
my ($raids, $prefix) = @_;
log::l("patched prepare_prefixed");
$raids or return;
&write($raids, "/etc/raidtab") if ! -e "/etc/raidtab";
eval { cp_af("/etc/raidtab", "$prefix/etc/raidtab") };
foreach (grep { $_ } @$raids) {
   devices::make("$prefix/dev/$_->{device}") foreach @{$_->{disks}};
to the floppy disk. Remove the floppy and reboot using the Mandrake Linux 9.0 CD1 to do a CD-ROM installation. During boot, press F1 at the splash screen, then place your floppy disk that contains patch.pl in the floppy drive. At the prompt, type "patch", then follow the installation as usual.
Hope that helps

Promise 20376 SATA Raid Controller Drivers?

Hi I'm trying to install WinXP with an K7N2GM2 - ILSR board and I'm having problems with the SATA drivers I've downloaded (from http://www.msi.com.tw/program/support/driver/dvr/spt_dvr_list.php?part=1&kind=4&CHIP=4&COM=19). The 'make disk' instructions included is a bit awkward but I tried putting the different files on a floppy several different ways, but to no avail. When windows asks for a floppy to install the sata drivers, it reads the disk for a while and returns back to the 'insert a disk and hit ENTER.' I went to Promise's website and download some drivers from there but again to no avail, the drivers included on the CD with the mb have not worked either.
Just to make sure I'm simply not putting the correct files on floppy or not putting them in the proper directory structure, I'll give you an example of what I have put on the floppy:
WinXP <-Folder containing drivers
txtsetup.oem
ULSATA
fasttx2k
and the text files like 'makedisk'
I've also taken all of the files out of the WinXP directory and had all files in the same location A:\ . I'm not sure what to do at this point, I'm adept with computers and I know that sata can be finiky, but this one going nowhere fast. Could somebody help? BTW I'm only using one HD, a WD 80GB Sata HD which I had to put in an array ('functioning').

http://www.msi.com.tw/program/products/mainboard/mbd/pro_mbd_detail.php?UID=398
K7N2G-ILSR
is board with promise raid and vga

Promise PDC20579 SATA/RAID controller

I'm trying to get the piece of shit working with Linux, but haven't had any luck. I'm not sure which Promise add-on cards use this chip as this one is built into my mobo, where it provides 2-SATA and 1-PATA port. I'm using the PATA with 2 drives (160GB, 60GB) and I don't want to setup a RAID array, but just use it as an extra IDE controller.
The BIOS detects the drives correctly but linux doesn't recognize the Promise controller, so it's not assigning device nodes for the drives (no hd* or sd*) and I can't seem to make it work. The correct kernel module, according to the net, is sata_promise, but I'm not certain it supports the PATA part of the controller. When loaded, it prints info about the connected drives to dmesg, but never assigns device nodes.

Okay, so I found a patch in the Red Hat kernel mailing list that seems to work. It patches the sata-promise module to attempt to detect PATA ports when nothing is connected via SATA. I don't have any SATA discs so I cannot check to see if it breaks anything in regards to SATA.
If anyone else is interested, I'll strip the RH specific stuff from the patch and submit it to the Arch kernel devs for review. Not sure if enough people would find is useful tho.

Raid controllers & linux (solved through workaround)

Hi All,
at current I use a highpoint card for my raid array. However, when I upgrade the kernel I always have to compile the highpoint driver.
Now this in itself is no big problem. However, as of the 2.6.18 kernel the highpoint driver won't compile because of loads of missing methods. Ofcourse it will be updated in time or I can hack something together myself, but it is quite annoying.
So now I want to switch to a raid controller where it is supported by the default kernel so I don't have such a maintenance issue.
I heard that this is the case with the promise cards.
Can any of you shed some light on this?
Thanks,
Leon..

El Bastardo wrote:
FUBAR wrote:
Doesn't the kernel have built in Highpoint support? (hpt37x module)
Or are you using a "real" (not onboard) card, i.e. something fancy?
If you're using onboard RAID, you might aswell get rid of it and use Linux software RAID and just use the Highpoint as a simple diskcontroller without the RAID functionality.
I use the onboard raid. The default hpt374 kernel support is not applicable for the raid. You have to run a special highpoint driver and turn probing of the disks off at grub.
If I understand correctly, using the hpt374 module you'll have access to the seperate disks but not to the RAID-arrays configured on the controller.
If that's the case, I'd go for Linux software RAID. Especially if you're using the connected disks solely for Linux and your bootdisk is on a regular IDE/SATA/SCSI controller: I don't know if you can boot from the onboard controller. You certainly won't be able to boot a software RAID-0 array.

Promise Fastrack100 (bad) raid

:O I have a MS6380v2 with Fastrack100 (bad) raid and bios 3.7 but the raid is very buggy it just wont Hibernate in WINXP and Hallways give me a nice and beautifull BLUE picture with an error on the raid driver ;( , the guys from promise should make a update to the bios or to the driver because I need to put my PC in Hibernate state sometimes , someone should wake up Promise on this subject don't you agree with me ?(

Hi
Before you start doing anything drastic make sure you have a full and effective backup first of the RAID array that is working.
Occasionally and over time the Controllers can become slightly unseated. Shutdown the RAID using RAID Util and remove the suspect controller. If you can't shutdown using this method - again make sure you have an effective backup handy - kick everyone off the host and power down the unit by disconnecting it from the Power Supply. If you have a can of air handy give the internal bay a good blast. If you don't give it a good blow instead or use whatever seems appropriate to you.
Reseat the controller and try again.
If this still does not work swop the FC Cables and see if the problem follows the cables. If the problem persists swop the Controllers. See if the problem follows the Controllers.
If after all this it does appear as if the Controller has failed and unless you have the SPF or SPF Late 2004 unit there won't be one available for the older unit as Apple have classed it ~VIN (Vintage). Parts available for the later models are expensive. I'm not entirely sure but it may be possible to use Controllers from a newer unit in the older model and vice/versa? To me they look to be the same thing?
If budget is an issue you may to have to scout around on the internet to see if there are usable spares available? There have been a few recent threads on the board with links to possible replacements.
Hope this helps?
Tony

Promise 20378 sata raid ide controller: this device doesn't start

My WinXp Promise Fast Track 376/378 (tm) Controller doesn't start, despite installing the right drivers for vista and xp. Ik have a 40 gig Maxtor disk attached to the IDE port of the controller aangesloten. Het Fast Track bios sees this disk correctly. The disk is o.k. since I can access its contents while running Linux Kubunty gutsy gibbon. What is wrong with the windows drivers?
My system:
M/B = MSI KT6 Delta FIS2R
CPU = AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1700+
RAM = 1GB Twinmos M2G9016A-TT pc 3200 Cl2.5
VGA = Ati Radeon 9600 series
HDD = 2x Maxtor 6Y120M0 via raid-0, Maxtor 91303D6 IDE1 master, Maxtor 6Y060L0 IDE2 master, Maxtor 54610H6 promise IDE master
PSU = Trust PW-5159 370W
Optical = Plextor DVDR PX-504A IDE1 slave, Plextor CD-R PX-W121 0A IDE2 slave
OSS = XP Pro SP2, Vista Ult., Kubuntu Gibbon 32bits, Suse 10.3 32 bits

Quote from: Fredrik Åsenius on 14-November-07, 05:57:51
Hello!
Is SATA/RAID enabled in BIOS?
Have you hit F6 during Windows installation, for allowing Windows Set-up to locate the drivers?
If SATA/RAID was disabled, it wouldn't even appear in Device Manager
If the RAID is secondary storage, then hitting F6 won't acheive anything as Windows is already installed
You will however need to go into the RAID BIOS and create an array before you can use the RAIDed disks

Using xserve raid with Linux

I have an Apple Xserve raid that I connected to a Dell PowerEdge 1950 using a QLogic Sanblade QLE2460 card. I currently have 7x750GB drives installed in the raid that yields around 4TB of usable capacity. I am running Red Hat 4 AS and created an ext3 file system. I have unfortunately had two occasions where the file system has gotten corrupted somehow. The file system seems fine until I shutdown cleanly and reboot. After booting, the partition table appears corrupt showing the file system is 4GB put the drive is much smaller. Is there a better file system type that is known to work with the xserve raid? Could this be a driver or kernel issue? Thanks!

Hello RandyMartin and welcome to the Apple boards,
I don't know how many people here are running your set-up, but hopefully someone will chime in with some ideas.
The general clearinghouse for all things Xserve RAID attached to non-Apple machines is: http://alienraid.org/
Good luck,
=Tod
G5/2.0x2, Dual XServes x2, XRAID, beige G3 501Mhz

Promise on-board RAID on Linux

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