Bug 66043

We just upgraded two of our 3ware raid systems (7810 series) from 8x100GB HDD (WD/IBM) to 8x200GB (Maxtor).

The 3ware support helped us installing new firmware and drivers (7.7.0).

We configured raid5 for the controller and tried to fdisk/format the 1.39TB large media under FREEBSD, but at this point, it fails.

Our method for media formating (as explained by the FreeBSD handbook):

-> start /stand/sysinstall
-> [select menu] Configure -> fdisk -> twed0

Error message pops up:
xWARNING:  A geometry of 7744625/90/4 for twed0 is incorrect.  Using  x
xa more likely geometry.  If this geometry is incorrect or you        x
xare unsure as to whether or not it's correct, please consult         x
xthe Hardware Guide in the Documentation submenu or use the           x
x(G)eometry command to change it now.                                 x
x                                                                     x
xRemember: you need to enter whatever your BIOS thinks the            x
xgeometry is!  For IDE, it's what you were told in the BIOS           x
xsetup. For SCSI, it's the translation mode your controller is        x
xusing.  Do NOT use a ``physical geometry''.                          x

NOTE: This warning message has been always displayed with 3ware controllers, but it doesn't seem to have any critical impact.

In the fdisk menu, we did select "Use entire disk" via option "A"
-> after that, quit the fdisk menu
-> select standart bootmanager from config menu

-> [select menu] Label
RESULT: Sysinstall crashes with msg "Fatal Error: Partitions are larger than actual chunk?? - PRESS ANY KEY TO QUIT"

I could reproduce this exactly with FreeBSD 4.9 (3ware twe drivers) and 5.2.1 (FreeBSD twe drivers).

I have attached you another exact description of a user having this problem. The problem report was found via google on the freebsd mailing list.

Also, there is some more technical information about our unix environment at the end of this email.

I am looking forward to hear from you.

Kind regards

Steven Enderle
-- 
--------------------------------------------------
----- Steven Enderle ----- m d n Huebner GmbH ----
----- enderle@mdn.de ----- + 49 911 93 90 90 -----
-----  Digital Imaging & Documentmanagment   -----
--------------------------------------------------

dmesg output:
twe0: <3ware 7000 series Storage Controller driver ver. 1.00.00.000> port 0xefa0-0xefaf mem 0xfe000000-0xfe7fffff,0xfebffc00-0xfebffc0f irq 10 at device 1.0 on pci1
twe0: 8 ports, Firmware FE7X 1.05.00.065, BIOS BE7X 1.08.00.048
twed0: <Unit 0, RAID5, Normal> on twe0
twed0: 1361360MB (2788065280 sectors)
twed0s1: slice extends beyond end of disk: truncating from 2788070233 to 2788065217 sectors
twed0s1: slice extends beyond end of disk: truncating from 2788070233 to 2788065217 sectors
# fdisk twed0
******* Working on device /dev/twed0 *******
parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are:
cylinders=7744625 heads=90 sectors/track=4 (360 blks/cyl)

Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1
parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
cylinders=7744625 heads=90 sectors/track=4 (360 blks/cyl)

Media sector size is 512
Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1
Information from DOS bootblock is:
The data for partition 1 is:
sysid 165,(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
    start 4, size 2788065252 (1361359 Meg), flag 80 (active)
        beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1;
        end: cyl 113/ head 63/ sector 4
The data for partition 2 is:
<UNUSED>
The data for partition 3 is:
<UNUSED>
The data for partition 4 is:
<UNUSED>
# disklabel twed0s1
# /dev/twed0s1c:
type: ESDI
disk: amnesiac
label:
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 4
tracks/cylinder: 90
sectors/cylinder: 360
cylinders: 7744625
sectors/unit: 2788065217
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0           # milliseconds
track-to-track seek: 0  # milliseconds
drivedata: 0

8 partitions:
#        size   offset    fstype   [fsize bsize bps/cpg]
  c: 2788065217        0    unused        0     0               # (Cyl.    0 - 7744625*)
  d: 2788065000        0    4.2BSD        0     0     0         # (Cyl.    0 - 7744624)

Bills eMail regarding the problem:

All...

I have a system with a 3ware 7506-8 controller and 6 wd 250MB drives in a raid 5 config (1.2TB storage). The problem I am having is trying to
configure the raid 5 array as a disk. using sysinstall, I get this message with every fdisk key press:

'a geometry of 152005/255/63 for twed0 is incorrect'

from there it drops me to the fdisk window and using 'a' for the entire
disk, gives me this geometry which is invalid

offset    size    end
0    63    62
63    2441960262    2441960324
-1853006971    14715    2441975039

first, that seems very wrong, but I leave fdisk anyway. when I go into
disklabel, I get an error stating:

Fatal Error: Partitions are larger than actual chunk?? - PRESS ANY KEY TO QUIT

so, I can not create that disk. I am running 4.9 with the latest 3ware
drivers compiled in. 3ware specifies to use 4.8 with their drivers, but I get the exact same err on 4.8.

I am not as adept to on the cli setting up the disk, but everything I try fails. I think I could get it working with the right geometry, but I am not sure how to even get that.

questions....

can the twe driver support this config? how can I detect the actual geometry of the raid5 disk? what steps are needed to setup the disk?

At this point, I am at a loss on this, so any suggestions or help is
appreciated.

Also...I have followed the handbook and any other doc I can research on the website, google and  anywhere else with no avail...

TIA,

Bill (bill at ethernext.com)

How-To-Repeat: Get a 3ware controller and configure a raid >1TB