MFI and passthrough

[Scott Long]

The passthrough interface is really only meant for doing management
tasks like SMART monitoring and firmware flashes.  I've also seen it
used for low-duty devices like tape drives.  I do not recommend using it
to directly control disks in a primary fashion.  However, since this is
open source, I won't prevent you from trying =-)  Try the following
patch:

--- mfi_cam.c   12 Oct 2007 16:52:55 -0000      1.3
+++ mfi_cam.c   31 Oct 2007 03:42:25 -0000
@@ -344,9 +344,11 @@
                         command = ccb->csio.cdb_io.cdb_bytes[0];
                 if (command == INQUIRY) {
                         device = ccb->csio.data_ptr[0] & 0x1f;
+#if 0
                         if ((device == T_DIRECT) || (device == 
T_PROCESSOR))
                                 csio->data_ptr[0] =
                                      (device & 0xe0) | T_NODEVICE;
+#endif
                 }
                 break;
         }


I do believe that Dell does sell a direct attached disk option for
the 2950/1950 called the PERC5/e.  It's essentially an LSI MPT-SAS
controller that directly replaces the PERC5/i card that you have now.
It should be able to control all 6 disk slots, and can do both SAS
and SATA.

Scott



Borja Marcos wrote:
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> Hello,
> 
> I'm trying to set up a machine with FreeBSD 7, using ZFS, and I'm 
> running into problems.
> 
> The machine is a Dell Poweredge 2950, and includes a PERC/5i card and 
> six disks. As I'm using ZFS I don't
> need the array functionality at all, and it's actually causing problems 
> if I just create six logical volumes.
> 
> I have seen that there is a "mfip" device that works as a passthough, so 
> I have tried to destroy the six
> logical volumes I had created. Using the GENERIC kernel I had installed 
> with the distribution (which includes
> the mfi driver) I've loaded the mfip module from the boot command line.
> 
> After booting, a "camcontrol devlist" shows the six disks, but only as 
> "passthrough devices". How can I make
> them be attached as disks? I've tried to use the "da" driver (using 
> device.hints) but I have been unsuccessful.
> 
> Unfortunately Dell doesn't sell a non-array option for this machine 
> supporting 6 disks. The non-array option, which
> I think is based on SATA, supports only four.
> 
> Any ideas? The PERC/5i plain sucks for this purpose. I tried to unplug 
> one of the disks (remember that I have a separate
> logical volume for each disk) and the card renumbered the rest of the 
> logical disks, making the ZFS pool unusable until
> I rebooted, erased the PERC config, and recreated the six logical volumes.
> 
> 
> Thank you very much,
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Borja.
> 
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