Areca RAID controllers on non-amd64

[John Klos <john%ziaspace.com@localhost>]

Hello,

I have two Areca RAID controllers which I'd like to use with non-x86 
systems. One is an ARC-1110, the other an ARC-1160ML. I've been testing 
the ARC-1110 on NetBSD 8 on an amd64 system and on an Alpha.

The card shows up fine on both systems:

arcmsr0 at pci6 dev 14 function 0
arcmsr0: interrupting at ioapic0 pin 16
arcmsr0: Areca ARC-1110 Host Adapter RAID controller
arcmsr0: 4 ports, 256MB SDRAM, firmware <V1.49 2010-12-02>
scsibus0 at arcmsr0: 16 targets, 8 luns per target

arcmsr0 at pci1 dev 14 function 0
arcmsr0: interrupting at dec 6600 irq 26
arcmsr0: Areca ARC-1110 Host Adapter RAID controller
arcmsr0: 4 ports, 256MB SDRAM, firmware <V1.49 2010-12-02>
scsibus1 at arcmsr0: 16 targets, 8 luns per target


First, I tried to use bioctl to configure a RAID set and volume. However, 
that apparently doesn't work:

bioctl arcmsr0 show disks
 Disk Model/Serial                   Status       Size       Location
=====================================================================
bioctl: BIOCDISK_NOVOL: Input/output error


I then used the amd64 system so that I could configure the RAID by 
accessing the card's x86 BIOS. It's just a two drive RAID-1. It shows up 
just fine on amd64:

sd0 at scsibus0 target 0 lun 0: <Areca, ARC-1110-VOL#00, R001> disk fixed
sd0: 931 GB, 59838 cyl, 68 head, 480 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 1953124864 sectors


However, on alpha, I get a different volume and a few extra lines about 
the volume:

sd0 at scsibus1 target 0 lun 0: <Areca, ARC-1110-VOL#00, R001> disk fixed
sd0: 512, 59838 cyl, 68 head, 0 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 1 sectors
...
arcmsr0: normal state on 'RAID 1 volume0 (sd0)' (online)
arcmsr0: state changed on 'disk0 volume0 (sd0)' to 'offline'
arcmsr0: state changed on 'disk1 volume0 (sd0)' to 'offline'

bioctl arcmsr0 show volumes
Volume Status       Size         Device/Label    Level Stripe
=============================================================
     0 Online       931G  sd0 ARC-1110-VOL#00   RAID 1    N/A

However, sd0 still says it's one sector, and:

scsictl /dev/scsibus1 scan any any

returns instantly without any change in the volumes.


Has anyone used arcmsr devices on non-x86? Thoughts about how this might 
be correctable?

John