<html xmlns:v="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" xmlns:w="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" xmlns:m="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/2004/12/omml" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8">
<meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 14 (filtered medium)">
<style><!--
/* Font Definitions */
@font-face
        {font-family:Calibri;
        panose-1:2 15 5 2 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
@font-face
        {font-family:Tahoma;
        panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
@font-face
        {font-family:Consolas;
        panose-1:2 11 6 9 2 2 4 3 2 4;}
/* Style Definitions */
p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
        {margin:0in;
        margin-bottom:.0001pt;
        font-size:12.0pt;
        font-family:"Times New Roman","serif";}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
        {mso-style-priority:99;
        color:blue;
        text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
        {mso-style-priority:99;
        color:purple;
        text-decoration:underline;}
pre
        {mso-style-priority:99;
        mso-style-link:"HTML Preformatted Char";
        margin:0in;
        margin-bottom:.0001pt;
        font-size:10.0pt;
        font-family:"Courier New";}
span.HTMLPreformattedChar
        {mso-style-name:"HTML Preformatted Char";
        mso-style-priority:99;
        mso-style-link:"HTML Preformatted";
        font-family:Consolas;}
span.EmailStyle19
        {mso-style-type:personal-reply;
        font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";
        color:#1F497D;}
.MsoChpDefault
        {mso-style-type:export-only;
        font-size:10.0pt;}
@page WordSection1
        {size:8.5in 11.0in;
        margin:1.0in 1.0in 1.0in 1.0in;}
div.WordSection1
        {page:WordSection1;}
--></style><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapedefaults v:ext="edit" spidmax="1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
<o:shapelayout v:ext="edit">
<o:idmap v:ext="edit" data="1" />
</o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>
<body lang="EN-US" link="blue" vlink="purple">
<div class="WordSection1">
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Most of the MegaRaid cards I’ve seen are made by LSI/Avago (including the Dell PERC/SAS which are OEMed from LSI/Avago).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">During POST when it find the BIOS of these cards it usually gives you a Ctrl-R option to go into that for config. I don’t know whether that config allows
you to change individual drive cache setup. Typically I don’t muck with such setups on the assumption the card was already optimized. I’ve only used it for creating/modifying the RAID layout.
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D">Once they’re in a RAID presented by the card you’re not going to see the individual drives at OS level – you’ll just see the entire RAID set(s) as individual
drive(s). e.g. If you had created a RAID1 of 2 disks for OS then a RAID5 for remaining disks you’re only going to see /dev/sda and /dev/sdb at OS level.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size:11.0pt;font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif";color:#1F497D"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<div>
<div style="border:none;border-top:solid #B5C4DF 1.0pt;padding:3.0pt 0in 0in 0in">
<p class="MsoNormal"><b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif"">From:</span></b><span style="font-size:10.0pt;font-family:"Tahoma","sans-serif""> ale-bounces@ale.org [mailto:ale-bounces@ale.org]
<b>On Behalf Of </b>Jim Kinney<br>
<b>Sent:</b> Friday, September 02, 2016 4:13 PM<br>
<b>To:</b> Atlanta Linux Enthusiasts - Yes! We run Linux!<br>
<b>Subject:</b> [ale] hdparm and RAID cards<o:p></o:p></span></p>
</div>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">How the $(^*#!!! do I use hdparm to enable write caching on a giant pile of drives that make up a hardware RAID 6 array?<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">I can peek through the controller with smartctl for health monitoring. The RAID controller (MegaRAID) has a tool to see that each drive has a N/A status for hardware cache (these drives all have a large multi-MB cache).<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<p class="MsoNormal">I _really_ don't want to have to convert all 28 drives to RAID0 so I can get a /dev/sdx node for hdparm.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div>
<pre>-- <o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>James P. Kinney III<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><o:p> </o:p></pre>
<pre>Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>own tail. It won't fatten the dog.<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre>- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain<o:p></o:p></pre>
<pre><o:p> </o:p></pre>
<pre><a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><o:p></o:p></pre>
</div>
</div>
</body>
</html>