Windows XP x64 smartctl support for 3ware

[dmarty]

Are there any plans to add 3ware support to smartctl for the windows version? Specifically, I'm hoping to be able to send the smartctl -l scterc,70,70 to drives behind my 3ware controller, so they behave more like enterprise drives as regards error recovery. I know the drives I'm using support this as I've tried them when connected to the MB, but I can't address them behind my new 3ware controller, at least, not under the windows version of smartctl.

Many thanks!

[dmarty]

Forgot to mention, I have a 9650SE-4LPML controller, and the "-a /dev/sd[a-z],N" command returns:

"SMART_GET_VERSION returns unknown identifier = 0000
This is no 3ware controller or driver has no SMART support.

.\PhysicalDrive0: ATA driver has no SMART support
To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.
Smartctl open device: /dev/sda,0 failed: Function not implemented"

Sorry if I implied there was "no" 3ware support in smartctl...it just doesn't appear to encompass my board/driver.

Thanks again.

[dmarty]

An oops on my part, apparently my controller is seen as sdf by smartctl. Running "smartctl -i /dev/sdf -d ata" yields:

Device Model: AMCC 9650SE-4LPML
Serial Number: [No information Found]
Firmware Version: 4.08
Device is: Not in smartctl database
ATA Version is: [No information Found]
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.

Enabled status cached by OS, trying SMART RETURN STATUS cmd.

SMART support is: Enabled

The drives are on physical ports 0 & 1, but if I try adding ,0 or ,1 to sdf I get:

.\PhysicalDrive5: ATA driver has no SMART support
To continue, add one or more '-T permissive' options.
Smarctl open device: /dev/sdf,0 failed: Function not implemented

[Christian Franke]

There is 3ware support since smartmontools 5.37 (December 2006). It was recently verified with a 9690SA-4I4E on 64-bit Windows 7, see Supported RAID-Controllers (Note 3).

AFAIK the SCT commands like "smartctl -l scterc,..." are not supported because the 3ware driver does not support SMART WRITE LOG command.

Note: The form "/dev/sdX" should also work with 3ware Windows driver, it then routes the I/O-controls to the first physical drive of the RAID array (see ticket #165 for a related problem).

For further diagnostics please provide to following info:

• 3ware Windows driver version
• smartctl version (first output line)
• output of "smartctl --scan-open"

[dmarty]

Many thanks for the quick reply Christian.

• 3ware driver: 3.00.04.070
• smartctl version 5.4
• output as follows:

/dev/sda -d ata [ATA] <opened>
/dev/sdb -d ata [ATA] <opened>
/dev/sdc -d ata [ATA] <opened>
/dev/sdd -d ata [ATA] <opened>
/dev/sde -d ata [ATA] <opened>

The 3ware controller is definitely on /dev/sdf, but doesn't appear to be recognized by the scan command...sda is a 120 Gig EIDE drive, sdb a 500 Gig Maxtor sata drive, and sdc-e are 3 identical Seagate 1.5 TB drives. The two currently behind the 3ware controller are a pair of matching Seagate 2 TB drives.

[dmarty]

Added note, I'm currently running XP 64 and that 3ware driver is the latest released update for the 9.4 release package.

[dmarty]

Another oops on my part, the complete version string for smartctl is: smartctl 5.40 2010-10-16 r3189 [i686-w64-mingw32-2003<64>-sp2] <sf-win32-5.40-1>

[dmarty]

Arg...sorry again, that windows driver is the latest for the 9.5x package. I'd downloaded the 9.4 package to try based on ​http://sourceforge.net/ticket/43

[Christian Franke]

Replying to dmarty:

The 3ware controller is definitely on /dev/sdf, but doesn't appear to be recognized by the scan command...

Please make sure that all tests are run with full admin rights. Otherwise smartctl uses other I/O-controls which provide limited (-i without S/N, -H, -c, -A without thresholds) SMART support for (S)ATA drives. This does not work for RAID, SCSI and USB.

[dmarty]

This computer has only 1 account, Administrator...moi.

[Christian Franke]

For 64-bit Windows there was only a positive test report for Win7 with latest driver 9.5.3 (3wareDrv.sys 3.00.04.070), but not for XP/2003. Ticket #43 also reports that the I/O-control method did not work on 64-bit XP/2003, but the fallback method (/dev/tw_cli/cX/pN device name) using tw_cli.exe works.

So it might be the case that the 64-bit driver supports the SMART I/O controls only on Vista/Win7.

[Christian Franke]

The successful tests on 64-bit Windows 7 were done with a 9690SA-4I4E and driver file 3wareDrv.sys from Codeset 9.5.3, Version 3.00.04.070, Build Date 24-Mar-09.
MD5 Sum: c42d2bd350f6a86f4e30eec5336c28c1

Did you use the same driver file?

[dmarty]

Replying to chrfranke:

For 64-bit Windows there was only a positive test report for Win7 with latest driver 9.5.3 (3wareDrv.sys 3.00.04.070), but not for XP/2003. Ticket #43 also reports that the I/O-control method did not work on 64-bit XP/2003, but the fallback method (/dev/tw_cli/cX/pN device name) using tw_cli.exe works.

So it might be the case that the 64-bit driver supports the SMART I/O controls only on Vista/Win7.

Hi Christian, I had read that ticket and I am able to parse output through tw_cli, but I didn't think that would help me in setting the scterc command as my perusal of tw_cli commands does't show any that would seem to allow me to channel that command to the drives.

Given what you've said about the 3ware drivers lack of support for the SMART WRITE LOG command, plus the slim likelihood of backward support for as outdated an OS as 64 bit XP/2003 being added in smartctl, it appears I won't be able to get where I wanna go this way...

Ah well, my own fault for leaping before I looked carefully enough. I should have dug deeper into what I could and couldn't do with a 3ware card and smartmontools before buying the card. I'd just gone through the documentation and saw 3ware cards were supported for windows, but didn't research enough to see exactly how extensive that support was, by either smartmontools or 3ware's drivers.

Many thanks for your help Christian, and please feel free to close this ticket.

[dmarty]

Replying to chrfranke:

The successful tests on 64-bit Windows 7 were done with a 9690SA-4I4E and driver file 3wareDrv.sys from Codeset 9.5.3, Version 3.00.04.070, Build Date 24-Mar-09.
MD5 Sum: c42d2bd350f6a86f4e30eec5336c28c1

Did you use the same driver file?

Using that driver currently...no love in 64 bit XP.

[Christian Franke]

Meantime I sent a support request to LSI support and got a reply from driver development department. Before further investigation another test with a 64-bit version of smartctl needs to be done.

Please repeat your tests with a 64-bit version of smartctl. You could use the older 5.40-0-20100501-r3100.win64 build from ​here. If possible please attach the outputs for the following commands using the 64-bit and the 32-bit version of smartctl:

smartctl -r ioctl,2        -a /dev/sdX,N
smartctl -r ioctl,2 -d ata -a /dev/sdX

[dmarty]

Replying to chrfranke:

Please repeat your tests with a 64-bit version of smartctl. You could use the older 5.40-0-20100501-r3100.win64 build from ​here. If possible please attach the outputs for the following commands using the 64-bit and the 32-bit version of smartctl:

smartctl -r ioctl,2        -a /dev/sdX,N
smartctl -r ioctl,2 -d ata -a /dev/sdX

Attached are the two commands shown above with the current 32bit version of smartctl. I tried renaming the 4 .exe files in smartmontools and copying the four 64 bit versions in from r3100, but that just gave me syntax errors, so I'm inferring I'll need to make a proper installer for windows per the install.txt that comes with that version. It's been years since I last used make, so as soon as I get that figured out and get a proper install of r3100 I'll post those two examples.

[Christian Franke]

Unlike some other apps the smartctl.exe do not require a real "installation" in a specific directory. No need to copy the 64-bit version in the 32-bit install directory (this may also not work because the 32-bit program files directory is handled specially on 64-bit windows to keep backward compatibility). Simply unzip the archive to a directory on the desktop and run smartctl.exe from there.

The 64-bit tests are needed to get further support from LSI driver development.

[dmarty]

Replying to chrfranke:

Unlike some other apps the smartctl.exe do not require a real "installation" in a specific directory. No need to copy the 64-bit version in the 32-bit install directory (this may also not work because the 32-bit program files directory is handled specially on 64-bit windows to keep backward compatibility). Simply unzip the archive to a directory on the desktop and run smartctl.exe from there.

The 64-bit tests are needed to get further support from LSI driver development.

I'd had a thought about the syntax error as it had to do with the drivedb.h file...thought perhaps that was a file created on first run of smartctl, so I tried my previous test and renamed that file as well...and then it ran. Came back here to post the tests and saw this post. Tried the first one and the output was the same as my test, so it appears it works both ways. At any rate, 2nd two tests in 64bit now attached. :)

Accidentally attached one of the 32bit tests a second time, can't figure out how to delete it...sorry.

[dmarty]

Just tried the 2nd test running from cmd from the extracted bin directory, and it also matches the one done copying the files to my 32 bit install, so it doesn't appear there is any conflict doing it that way. The older 64bit version just doesn't like the current drivedb.h file.

[Christian Franke]

SMART support for 3ware on XP/2003 x64 is not available. This is a limitation of these Windows versions, not a limitation of the x64 LSI/3ware Windows driver. Unlike Win7/2008 x64 there is no support for SMART I/O-controls in the driver independent layer.