Device Timeout Fix?

[thepregnantgod]

This isn't a Drivepool question.  However, some of you who frequent these forums also have setups similiar to mine and am curious of what to do.

I recently upgraded to a Highpoint DC7280 - 32 port card.  I'm experiencing though - what I can only call bus saturation concerns - that lock down the entire system.

The Event ID is 9 -The device, \Device\Scsi\dc72801, did not respond within the timeout period.

There are no settings that I know of how to configure the card.  Highpoint is not known for their customer service.

Anyone else have a card timeout that does a softlock on their system?

[Christopher (Drashna)]

I've had nothing but issues with the HighPoint 2720SGL that I owned.  I sold it and replaced it...

As for the soft locks, Windows is/can be very sensitive to I/O issues (it's why CloudDrive will unmount drives, actually).  And if you're experiencing issues, that's why it's happening.

Also, HighPoint uses rebranded and heavily modified Marvell controllers, usually.  And that heavy modification seems to make these cards much more unstable. 

 

Aside from "sell it and buy something better", I'm not sure how much I (or anyone else) could help you.  I've checked HighPoint's site, and there are no real updates from the card, and ... it's not available for purchase ANYWHERE (which is pretty telling, IMO). 

 

6 hours ago, thepregnantgod said:

The Event ID is 9 -The device, \Device\Scsi\dc72801, did not respond within the timeout period.

This looks like it's port 1 on the controller.  Try moving the drive to a different port, and see if that helps (it did for me, sometimes)

[thepregnantgod]

Thanks, Drashna.

This server hobby of mine is expensive enough.  I went with the cheapest 32port card I could find.  Uggh...

Seems to only be happening when I flood the bus with 100s of gigabytes of data writing.  Once I get things set, perhaps that won't happen.

[thepregnantgod]

Also, you have any recommendations for a 32 port (SFF-8088 end connection) card?

I'm looking - I know the name brands ARECA and such, but can't find any with 32 ports.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Yeah, this stuff get super expensive. Especially when dealing with more than 10 drives! 

 

As for 32, no.  But how about 40? 
Get a LSI 9207-8i card, and a couple of SAS expanders.  Such as the Intel RES2SV240.

Between the card and the two Expanders, it would cost you about $300, though.  So ... not cheap. But that's 40 drives that could be hooked up!
You hook up one of the SAS ports on the expander to the controller, and then you have 5 ports (for 20 drives).  And then "repeat" with the second port on the controller, for another 20 drives.  

As for bottlenecking, it shouldn't be an issue (the PCI-e 3.0 bus should be able to handle ~40 drives at 150MB/s, and each port on the controller should be able to handle half of that). 

[thepregnantgod]

RES2SV240 vs RES2SV240NC - what's the difference? (edit - NC means NC cables)

 

And do I need to do something with MPIO to avoid this error : Disk 8 has the same disk identifiers as one or more disks connected to the system.

[Christopher (Drashna)]

Not just "no cables", but it also doesn't include a bracket, so you'd want to mount it somewhere in the case, and run molex power.  Rather than using a PCIe port. 

4 hours ago, thepregnantgod said:

And do I need to do something with MPIO to avoid this error : Disk 8 has the same disk identifiers as one or more disks connected to the system.

Is this disk cloned?  

And are you running this in a VM? 

 

Also, run the StableBit Troubleshooter, and use "3398" as the Contact ID for it. Make sure "collect system info" is enabled/checked.