Other Can't blink disk

Hi All,

I'm currently trying to locate a disk which is in a medium state error.
Unfortunately, it's impossible to use sesutil(8) locater/fault command to blink the failed disk.

Code:
sesutil locate daxxx on
sesutil: ENCIOC_SETELMSTAT: Invalid argument

there is no other error in log...

Does anyone know what it could be wrong ? Or if i have to reinstall sesutil pkg ?

++
 
What version of FreeBSD and what type/model controller do you have?

(sesutil(8) is part of the base OS, it's not a package)
 
Is the disk in an enclosure? Does the enclosure support SES? Blinking is a function of the enclosure, not of the disk (*). How do you know which enclosure the disk is in, and how to you map from disk identity (for example /dev/adaX) to enclosure slot?

Footnote: That statement is not completely correct. Disks have a power/activity LED, which is physically installed in the enclosure, but controlled by the disk. Blinking that LED is not possible using SES. Matter-of-fact, blinking that disk is not in general possible over the interface (SCSI or ATA), since that LED is a lower-level entity which directly displays power or activity. The other LEDs are controlled by the enclosure, and can in general be blinked or controlled.
 
Hi !

Thanks for your answers !
The disk is in enclosure and support SES.
To know in which slot the disk is i use sesutil map and grep with daxxx. ..only sesutil locate/fault seems to not work
 
To be blunt: If all of SES works, except locate/fault does not, then your enclosure (or some part of the stack between you and the enclosure) does not fully support SES. Given that sesutil is widely used, and built from fundamentally the same source code for many OSes, I suspect the problem is not with sesutil, but with the enclosure's SES implementation.

As a practical matter, if your goal is to find the disk, rather than debug/improve SES: In emergencies, one way to find a disk is quiesce the system, then access only that one disk. If the activity lights (typically green) work, then only one light will blink. If the disk has failed so completely that you can't access it any more, then instead first quiesce the system, then access all other disks, and look for the only one that is not blinking.

(Personal remark: I used to spend a lot of time on SES and generally enclosure management. It is a disaster zone. The SCSI standard is very complex, and has many ways to do the same thing. Actual implementations are highly variable, both in how they do things, and in quality. Very painful.)
 
I've never been able to get any SES stuff working on Chenbro, SuperMicro, or <forget the other company> 2U, 3U, or 4U chassis, either from FreeBSD or Linux.

This is the main reason I started using labels (originally glabel(8) for entire drives, then gpart(8) labels on GPT partitions) and naming my drives after the chassis and drive bay they're in. :)

For the occasion when we don't have the bays labelled, dd if=/dev/daX of=/dev/null bs=1M works well for locating a drive. :)
 
Hi all,

Thanks all for your complete answer, that's help me a lot!
I'm gonna going to try your command Phoenix.

But the enclosure has the ability to blink disk, I'm using older enclosure from the same brand with another FreeBSD and that's works fine.
Do you think that could be come from SAS card version? Or firmware version?

Have a great day.
 
It's unlikely to be the "controller" (the SAS HBA that lives in the host); those tend to be agnostic to the content of SCSI packets. If you use one of the LSI Logic (now known as Broadcom and Avago), with recent firmware, they will definitely pass all SES commands unmolested.

Your problem might be the firmware on the SES controller (which is often identical to the SAS expander). Those things typically have downloadable firmware too, and I've spent years fighting with their firmware bugs. And while I'm a fan of the sesutil package, you need to be aware that it is neither perfect nor complete. With some more obscure enclosures, you'll find edge cases in SES commands that sesutil can't handle, and you'll end up writing your own software (been there, done that, got the T-shirt and the brain damage).

What type/model/brand of enclosure are you using, out of curiosity?
 
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