(Mis)Understanding RAID configuration

Update 8 June 2009
Be sure you to check out some of my research including Understanding your RAID Configuration and Understanding PERC RAID Controllers .

Last week I got caught thinking a MySQL production system wasn’t configured with RAID when it actually was. The following is the Linux dmesg output of 3 different client MySQL servers, where the H/W is all the same, a Dell 2950.

In the first two cases you will see individual references to the internal disks, however in the third you do not. This threw me, but as Matt Yonkovit correctly pointed out to me, the sizes are not standard drive sizes.

A deeper level of understanding via CLI tools, or actually console output would appear necessary to understand the disk configuration in the future.

    • *Nov 2007 – Dell 2950 Running RHEL 4. Note the individual SEAGATE drive details and single sda (70G) and sdb(300G)

scsi0 : LSI Logic SAS based MegaRAID driver
  Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST973451SS        Rev: SM04
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST973451SS        Rev: SM04
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST973451SS        Rev: SM04
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST973451SS        Rev: SM04
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
usb 4-1: new high speed USB device using ehci_hcd and address 2
usb 4-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
hub 4-1:1.0: USB hub found
hub 4-1:1.0: 2 ports detected
  Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST973451SS        Rev: SM04
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST973451SS        Rev: SM04
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: SEAGATE   Model: ST973451SS        Rev: SM04
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: DP        Model: BACKPLANE         Rev: 1.05
  Type:   Enclosure                          ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: DELL      Model: PERC 5/i          Rev: 1.03
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sda: 142082048 512-byte hdwr sectors (72746 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 1f 00 10 08
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
SCSI device sda: 142082048 512-byte hdwr sectors (72746 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 1f 00 10 08
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
 sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 >
sd 0:2:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
  Vendor: DELL      Model: PERC 5/i          Rev: 1.03
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sdb: 568328192 512-byte hdwr sectors (290984 MB)
sdb: Write Protect is off
sdb: Mode Sense: 1f 00 10 08
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
SCSI device sdb: 568328192 512-byte hdwr sectors (290984 MB)
sdb: Write Protect is off
sdb: Mode Sense: 1f 00 10 08
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
    • *Oct 2008 – Dell 2950 running Ubuntu 8.04. Note the individual SEAGATE drive details and single sda (600GB)

[   88.069326] scsi0 : LSI Logic SAS based MegaRAID driver
[   88.087755] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     SEAGATE  ST3300656SS      HS09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[   88.104931] scsi 0:0:1:0: Direct-Access     SEAGATE  ST3300656SS      HS09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[   88.122079] scsi 0:0:2:0: Direct-Access     SEAGATE  ST3300656SS      HS09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[   88.139064] scsi 0:0:3:0: Direct-Access     SEAGATE  ST3300656SS      HS09 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[   88.205346] scsi1 : ata_piix
[   88.205387] scsi2 : ata_piix
[   88.205409] ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0xfc00 irq 14
[   88.205411] ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0xfc08 irq 15
[   88.240207] scsi 0:0:32:0: Enclosure         DP       BACKPLANE        1.05 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[   88.252370] scsi 0:2:0:0: Direct-Access     DELL     PERC 6/i         1.21 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[   88.263532] scsi 0:0:32:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 13
[   88.263547] scsi 0:2:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0
[   88.265390] Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
[   88.265671] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] 1169686528 512-byte hardware sectors (598880 MB)
[   88.265700] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[   88.265702] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 1f 00 10 08
[   88.265771] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA
[   88.266135] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] 1169686528 512-byte hardware sectors (598880 MB)
[   88.266173] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[   88.266175] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 1f 00 10 08
[   88.266232] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] Write cache: disabled, read cache: enabled, supports DPO and FUA
[   88.266240]  sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
[   88.270085] sd 0:2:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
    • *May 2009 – Dell 2950 running RHEL 5. Note no individual drive details, only partition sizes for sda (300G) and sdb (600G).

scsi0 : LSI Logic SAS based MegaRAID driver
  Vendor: DP        Model: BACKPLANE         Rev: 1.05
  Type:   Enclosure                          ANSI SCSI revision: 05
  Vendor: DELL      Model: PERC 5/i          Rev: 1.03
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sda: 584843264 512-byte hdwr sectors (299440 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through
SCSI device sda: 584843264 512-byte hdwr sectors (299440 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through
 sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 >
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 2, id 0, lun 0
  Vendor: DELL      Model: PERC 5/i          Rev: 1.03
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sdb: 1169686528 512-byte hdwr sectors (598880 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write through
SCSI device sdb: 1169686528 512-byte hdwr sectors (598880 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write through
 sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3
Tagged with: Databases General Linux MySQL

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