Other RAID 1 on old Supermicro server

[SprMcroSx]

I have an old Supermicro server X9DRW using Intel Rapid Storage to create a RAID 1 running FreeBSD 13. One of the drives failed so I replaced it but the RAID isn't rebuilding and I can't seem to find a non destructive way to repair it.
Going into the Intel firmware menu at boot only gives me the options to create/destroy a RAID but both options clearly say all data will be lost if I do anything. I've looked into gmirror but it doesn't seem to read the disk information properly. The last option appears to be graid but I can't get it to rebuild it.

Any help would be much appreciated

 

[Hiroo Ono]

Does graid status say something?

 

[leebrown66]

I've had this happen to me before. Your "good" disk has a faulty sector and the RAID card is infinitely retrying to read it.

I used sysutils/ddrescue. In my case both disks were OK but had bad sectors in different places. I was able to read all the good sectors off one disk and use the second disk to fill in the unreadable sectors to make a "whole" new disk.

If you only have one disk, ddrescue will at least allow you to make a copy (with zero'd data for unreadable sectors) to new media.

Good luck.

 

[ralphbsz]

Intel RST (rapid storage technology) is a hardware RAID layer, implemented in firmware of the Intel bridge chips and SATA controllers. It has little to do with graid and gmirror. If a RST RAID group has faulted disk, the solution to that has to be in administering that with Intel RST.

I think there is an ataraid command in FreeBSD which can be used for that; if not, the tools should be accessible from the BIOS (although that is typically VERY uncomfortable).

 

[Hiroo Ono]

It has little to do with graid and gmirror.

Well manpage of graid https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi....0-RELEASE+and+Ports&arch=default&format=html says that:

SUPPORTED METADATA FORMATS
The GEOM RAID class follows a modular design, allowing different metadata
formats to be used. Support is currently implemented for the following
formats:

(snip)

Intel The format used by Intel RAID BIOS. Supports up to two volumes
per array. Supports configurations: RAID0 (2+ disks), RAID1 (2
disks), RAID5 (3+ disks), RAID10 (4 disks). Configurations not
supported by Intel RAID BIOS, but enforceable on your own risk:
RAID1 (3+ disks), RAID1E (3+ disks), RAID10 (6+ disks).

Isn't it related to Intel RST?

 

[Hiroo Ono]

If graid is not related at all, it seems rebuilding the raid is possible either

• via BIOS https://www.intel.com/content/www/u...intel-rapid-storage-technology-intel-rst.html
  (Sure it is written "All data on the drive will be erased", but here "the drive" is the HDD you newly added to the system, I think.)
• via some live filesystem of Linux https://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/white-papers/rst-linux-paper.pdf

 

[ralphbsz]

Isn't it related to Intel RST?

Fascinating. I didn't know that, and didn't inspect it. In that case, it should be possible to tell the BIOS/motherboard to stop serving the two disks as a RAID group, expose them as two separate block devices to FreeBSD, and use graid to manage (and therefore repair) it. Happy to be corrected.

 

[VladiBG]

Check the raid status using:

graid status


Write down the degraded raid name then insert the new disk using:
(where ada0 is the new disk in the example below and raid/r0 is the raid name)


graid insert -v raid/r0 ada0


Name    Status  Components
raid/r0  DEGRADED  ada1 (ACTIVE (ACTIVE))
                   ada0 (ACTIVE (REBUILD 0%))

 

[SprMcroSx]

Thanks for all the responses! I'm pretty sure graid is the solution here but it's having problems inserting the disk into the RAID. I've been search for a solution to the error but can't find one

When I try to insert the new drive into the mirror it errors out saying "can't open ada3" which is the replacement drive and I'm trying to insert it into raid/ar1

 

[SprMcroSx]

Looks like it's working now. The replacement disk had partitioning already on it which was preventing it from being added to the RAID. I incorrectly assumed it would auto wipe any previous data on the drive.

After wiping the drive "graid insert -v raid/r1 ada3" got the drive into the RAID

Thanks for everyone's suggestions!

 

[VladiBG]

ada3 have metadata information for raid volume with name "raid/ar1:1" you need to delete it first aka make it non raid member then you can add it into other raid volume. This can be done via graid or via bios ctr+I during the boot. If you select to add it via the bios the safest way is to add it as spare disk into degraded volume it will start rebuilding with it.