Finally stable! - LSI Megaraid - Proxmox 2

marotori · Mar 23, 2012

Hi All,

Anyone following my various posts on this forum will have noted that I have been having allot of problems recently!

Poor disk performance... lvm snapshots not working... random disk io lockup etc.

I have now finally got it working and my machines are backing up no problem! Disks are working etc..

The bottom line is. The current proxmox kernel has a very bugy lsi driver. I have managed to re-create the same issues across a range of machines. Super Micro - Dell - OEM. The common issue is always the LSI card.

Symptoms and issues are always related to high io.

1. Load the disk with lots of writes - disk io grinds to a halt and no option but to hard boot.
2. Do an LVM Snapshot.. 50/50 it works.
3. Remove an LVM Snapshot. 50/50 it works. Normally results in the /var/lib/vz/ volume hanging - and then hard boot follows

All of this is rather painfull when running live systems!

The solution is rather simple. Change the LSI driver.. and the issues go away!

I hope that the working driver is integratated soon

For thoise who are wanting to upgrade the driver - and I highly recommend it if you use LSI cards; the following procedure applies.

--

Download the megaraid driver for your card:
http://www.lsi.com/downloads/Public/MegaRAID Common Files/Debian5.0.x_05_30.zip

Unzip this file. Inside it you will find another file.. probably called: megaraid_sas-v00.00.05.30-src.tgz
This is the one you want!

Extract the files in this tgz file to: /usr/local/src/

(you should end up with a folder... /usr/local/src/megaraid_sas-v00.00.05.30)
Now.. go into the folder and do the following:

Rename Makefile to Makefile.orig (mv Makefile Makefile.orig)
Copy Makefile.standalone to Makefile (cp Makefile.standalone Makefile)
Next step - install development tools

apt-get install build-essential
pve-headers-2.6.32-10-pve (note. The version may be different if you are on a different kernel)
Now - compile time:

cd to : /usr/local/src/megaraid_sas-v00.00.05.30 (you may well still be there!)

and run the following to compile the module:

make -C /usr/src/linux-headers-2.6.32-10-pve/ M=$PWD modules

Note! The header location should be changed to suit your kernel.
Time to replace the driver

Backup this file: /lib/modules/2.6.32-10-pve/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko (simply rename)

Copy the new driver in: cp /usr/local/src/megaraid_sas-v00.00.05.30/megaraid_sas.ko /lib/modules/2.6.32-10-pve/kernel/drivers/scsi/megaraid/megaraid_sas.ko (again.. note the potential different kernel version in the lib path)
We now need to make sure this is loaded at boot time. To do this we update the initial ram disk.

mv /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-10-pve /boot/initrd.img-2.6.32-10-pve.bak (note different kernel versions)

Re-create this initial ram disk: update-initramfs -c -k 2.6.32-10-pve

Apply the changes: update-grub
While you are at it.. edit /etc/rc.local and add the following:

echo "975" > /sys/block/sda/queue/nr_requests
#echo "975" > /sys/block/sda/device/queue_depth (this should work but is disabled in the proxmox kernel??)

/sbin/blockdev --setra 1024 /dev/sda
/sbin/blockdev --setra 1024 /dev/mapper/pve-data
/sbin/blockdev --setra 1024 /dev/mapper/pve-root
Reboot!

All going well.. you should now be on a safe version of the driver.

Since doing this on all my 'test' servers I have not killed them once. I have for the last 12 hours been running some live sites on 2 servers with the changes - and it all is working. Even backups are working with no proble again

Note: As of kernel 2.6.32-10-pve this module is definitingly needed. It may not be required past this - dependant on if the proxmox dev team pick up what I am posting and update the driver.

Enjoy!

preocupao · Mar 23, 2012

Will the Proxmox team merge this driver into the oficial pve kernel? I dont like to compile anything, this requiere extra work in each server and mantain it in futures releases...

marotori · Mar 23, 2012

I hope so

Makes the process a little easier!

Rob

dietmar · Mar 23, 2012

marotori said:
I hope so

We will only include code under GPL (or similar licensing). But I guess there will be a fix in the next upstream kernel.

marotori · Mar 23, 2012

I believe it is GPL? The source is all included?

marotori · Mar 23, 2012

I just checked the source. GPL

/*
* Linux MegaRAID driver for SAS based RAID controllers
*
* Copyright (c) 2009-2011 LSI Corporation.
*
* This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
* modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License
* as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2
* of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
*
* This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
* but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
* MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
* GNU General Public License for more details.
*
* You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
* along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
* Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA
*
* FILE: megaraid_sas_base.c
*
* Authors: LSI Corporation
* Sreenivas Bagalkote
* Sumant Patro
* Bo Yang
*
* Send feedback to: <megaraidlinux@lsi.com>
*
* Mail to: LSI Corporation, 1621 Barber Lane, Milpitas, CA 95035
* ATTN: Linuxraid
*/

MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
MODULE_VERSION(MEGASAS_VERSION);
MODULE_AUTHOR("megaraidlinux@lsi.com");
MODULE_DESCRIPTION("LSI MegaRAID SAS Driver");

dietmar · Mar 23, 2012

I would still prefer the upstream version. Lets see if they include it. If no, we can think about adding it ourself.

marotori · Mar 25, 2012

Well...

24 hours on and LVM snapshot removal fails again!

It seems that a lvm snapshot can be removed easily if you create & remove it... but leave it running for a long time (e.g. my backups) and it crashes!

Looking round the net - this is a kernel/udev issue.

Anyone got any magic fixes?

Rob

bazzi · Mar 31, 2012

I have the same problem but whit a LSI SAS1064ET PCI-Express Fusion-MPT-SAS

The backup's of a vz containers failes 25% of the time and the load will go up and the lvm commando's will freaze. The command:

Code:

dmsetup udevcookies

Will show a large list of cookies.

if you run

Code:

dmsetup udevcomplete_all

will clear that list, but will not work.

Load will reach around 6000.02

The only fix is to completly force restart.

This problem stops me from migrate the old vz containers(proxmox 1.9) to the new platform with proxmox 2.0.

marotori · Mar 31, 2012

My fix is to never ever ever use vz dump!

I now use r1soft hcp to do manual snapshots. But would love a proper solution

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

udi · Mar 31, 2012

marotori said:
My fix is to never ever ever use vz dump!

that's right, the problem is with lvm snapshot removal.
hcp snapshot works like a charm.

the only problem is that it cannot make a snapshot from an unmounted volume - and you cannot mount the vms' lvm disks.
thatswhy, instead of lvm, i use directory storage, then i do a hcp snapshot from the whole logical volume containing the raw disk files, do the tar backup, remove the hcp snapshot, and done

i tested this several times in the last few days without ANY problems.

i also wrote a script for this, it's a bit ugly because i'm a newbie but it works.
at least until the lvremove bug is fixed, who knows, maybe 4ever.

bazzi · Apr 2, 2012

Can you share that script?

udi · Apr 2, 2012

ok but PLEASE DON'T LAUGH as i told i'm a newbie.

first get the kernel header, then

#dpkg -i r1soft-hotcopy-amd64-3.18.2.deb
#hcp-setup --get-module

backup.sh:
assume a vm has all disk files in the same volume; backups older than 2 days will be removed; result (output of the commands) will be mailed.

Code:

#!/bin/sh

SEP="-------------------------------------------------------------------------------"
REPORT=""
BACKUPDIR="/var/backup/hcpbackup"
SNAPDIR="/var/snap"
IMGVOL="/dev/vgvirt/lvvirt"

# -20 to 19
NICE=19
# 0 to 7
IONICE=7
# -1 or -9
COMPRESS=-1

for VMID in $@
do

    VMID=`echo "$VMID"|grep -P '\d+' -o`
    if ! [ -f /etc/pve/qemu-server/$VMID.conf ]
    then
        continue
    fi

    if ! [ -d $BACKUPDIR/$VMID ]
    then
        mkdir $BACKUPDIR/$VMID
    fi

    DATE="$(date +%F_%H-%M-%S)"
    TODAY="$(date +%F)"
    LOGFILE="$BACKUPDIR/$VMID/"$DATE"_$VMID.log"
    CONFFILE="$BACKUPDIR/$VMID/"$DATE"_$VMID.conf"

    cat /etc/pve/qemu-server/$VMID.conf > $CONFFILE

    #exec > $LOGFILE 2>&1
    exec > $LOGFILE

    #echo $SEP
    echo "\nBackup log for vmid $VMID, created: $(date)"

    echo $SEP
    cat /etc/pve/qemu-server/$VMID.conf

    # don't know if suspend is needed, i do
    ERR=`/usr/sbin/qm suspend $VMID 2>&1`
    if [ "$ERR" ]
    then
        echo $SEP
        echo "qm suspend $VMID: $ERR"
    fi

    echo $SEP
    /usr/sbin/hcp -m $SNAPDIR $IMGVOL

    ERR=`/usr/sbin/qm resume $VMID 2>&1`
    if [ "$ERR" ]
    then
        echo $SEP
        echo "qm resume $VMID: $ERR"
    fi

    /usr/sbin/qm set $VMID -lock backup

    echo $SEP
    for FILE in `ls $SNAPDIR/images/$VMID`
    do
        GZIP=$COMPRESS nice -n$NICE ionice -n$IONICE tar -cvzf $BACKUPDIR/$VMID/"$DATE"_"$VMID"_$FILE.tar.gz -C $SNAPDIR/images/$VMID/ $FILE
    done

    echo $SEP
    /usr/sbin/hcp -l

    echo $SEP
    HCPDEV=`/usr/sbin/hcp -s $IMGVOL | grep /dev/hcp`
    /usr/sbin/hcp -r $HCPDEV

    /usr/sbin/qm unlock $VMID

    echo $SEP
    for BACKUP in `ls $BACKUPDIR/$VMID | grep -P '^\d{4}-\d{2}-\d{2}' | grep -v $TODAY | grep -v $(date -d "$TODAY -1 day" +%F)`
    do
        rm -v $BACKUPDIR/$VMID/$BACKUP
    done

    REPORT="$REPORT"`cat $LOGFILE`"\n\n\n"

done

MAILADDR="addr@domain.tld"
SUBJECT="Backup report at $(hostname -f)"
MESSAGE="Backup job finished at $(hostname -f) on $(date) with the following results:\n\n$REPORT"

echo "$MESSAGE" | mail -s "$SUBJECT" $MAILADDR

/etc/cron.d/backup

Code:

15 22 * * *           root /etc/backup/backup.sh 101 102 108 109 111 112

a tip:
you can zero out the free space inside a vm to get much smaller archives:

Code:

dd if=/dev/zero of=zero.small.file bs=1024 count=102400
dd if=/dev/zero of=zero.file bs=1024
rm zero.small.file
sync ; sleep 60 ; sync
rm zero.file

in a windows vm you can use sdelete:

sdelete.exe -z c::

Akkarin · Jul 10, 2019

marotori said:
Hi All,

Anyone following my various posts on this forum will have noted that I have been having allot of problems recently!
....

Registered just to say thank you. Following your instructions i've build driver for MegaRAID SAS 9341-4i for current kernel 4.15.18-18-pve.
sources from: broadcom.com/products/storage/raid-controllers/megaraid-sas-9341-4i#downloads

In case if anyone want to update driver, zip is attached.

Done that because there was FW updates since driver version, included in kernel. Worried for consistency.

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Finally stable! - LSI Megaraid - Proxmox 2

marotori

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preocupao

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marotori

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dietmar

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marotori

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marotori

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dietmar

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marotori

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bazzi

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udi

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udi

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