Re: disk geometry (i386/amd64)

[Don NetBSD <netbsd-embedded%gmx.com@localhost>]

On 9/13/2018 11:35 PM, Michael van Elst wrote:
> netbsd-embedded%gmx.com@localhost (Don NetBSD) writes:
>
> > >     | > SMART [...] so it is clearly possible.
> > >     |
> > >     | I think only via wd(4)?
> > >
> > > Oh, you mean, not sd(4) - yes, possibly.   Sorry, I have no idea how
> > > one would access that kind of data over scsi.
>
> > I will have to keep poking through the manual pages.
>
> SMART is something that only exists for ATA but modern SCSI devices may
> provide similar information on some mode pages.

Yes, that's how our firmware gets identifying information for the drives.

And, how it tracks the GDT "in the field" to determine the relative health
of the drive (and, hence, the product).

> Our atactl tool can query SMART status, but maybe not everything you
> want to know. For SCSI there is nothing, you need to make your own
> tool to issue the proper commands with SCIOCCOMMAND.
>
> It's possible that the smartmontools in pkgsrc help.

Thanks, I'll look at that.

So, there's no equivalent of Linux's hdparm or lshw that brings all
of this together "under one roof"?

> Devices attached to RAID controllers or something behind USB adapters
> can be more of a problem. Passing through low-level commands is usually
> not implemented.

I'll replace any RAID controllers with SAS controllers -- if, for no other
reason, than to get the RAID BIOS out of the way.  The goal is to run these
headless so can't afford for the BIOS to complain about something (and
not have an easy way to SEE the complaint)