Checking disks behind RAID controllers
RAID controllers typically simulate a (logical) disk for each array of (physical)
disks to the OS. Access to SMART functionality relies on ATA or SCSI pass through
I/O controls providing direct access to each physical disk.
But the standard I/O controls available are usually not designed to make
this distinction between logical and physical disks. Therefore, smartmontools
has to use vendor specific I/O controls. Support for disks behind RAID
controllers is highly dependent on both platform and controller type.
| RAID-Controller |
Directive |
Supported in OS |
| Linux |
FreeBSD |
MS-Windows |
NetBSD/
OpenBSD |
Solaris |
MacOS/
Darwin |
| 3ware SATA RAID controller |
-d 3ware,N |
Yes 1 |
Yes 2 |
Yes 3 |
? |
? |
? |
| Areca SATA RAID controller |
-d areca,N |
Yes 4 |
No |
No |
? |
? |
? |
| HighPoint RocketRAID SATA RAID controller |
-d hpt,L/M/N |
Yes 5 |
Yes 6 |
No |
? |
? |
? |
| CCISS (HP/Compaq Smart Array Controller) |
-d cciss,N |
Yes 7 |
Yes |
No |
? |
? |
? |
LSI MegaRAID SAS RAID controller
Dell PERC 5/i,6/i controller |
-d megaraid,N |
Yes 8 |
Yes 9 |
No |
? |
? |
? |
See the notes below and the INSTALL
file for information about kernel and driver requirements on your platform. Also consult
the man pages for controller specific smartmontools options or
directives.
Notes:
1. 3ware RAID controllers are supported on Linux
since smartmontools release 5.1-18. Support for char devices /dev/tw* was added in release 5.33.
2. 3ware support on FreeBSD is available since release 5.33,
multiple controller and char device support was added in release 5.36.
3. 3ware 9000 series only (added in release 5.37),
requires Windows driver 9.4.0 or later. For older controllers or 64-bit systems, smartctl and smartd
provide limited SMART support through tw_cli tool, see man page.
Initially the SMART support was added only to the 32-bit driver, this is probably still the case.
3ware did never document the new I/O-controls for SMART support in their driver release notes.
Smartmontools was tested with 9500S and driver 9.4.1 (3wareDrv.sys 3.00.02.090) on WinXP SP2.
This should also work with 9550SX/U, 9590SE, and 9650SE Series.
But there was not much feedback since then.
4. Areca support on Linux added in release 5.39.
The Areca controller must have firmware version 1.46 or later. Earlier versions will
not return SMART information but will instead produce (harmless) SCSI error messages.
Areca SAS controllers (1680 series) are not supported, see ticket
#21.
5. HighPoint RocketRAID support for Linux was added in release 5.37.
6. HighPoint RocketRAID support for FreeBSD was added in release 5.39.
7. CCISS (Compaq Smart Array Controller) support for Linux was added in release 5.37.
8. Support for LSI MegaRAID controller on Linux was added in release 5.39.
9. Support of LSI MegaRaid on FreeBSD is implemented with mfip.ko module and /dev/passX devices.
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