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    Using a hard-disk in a Watchguard Firebox X750e for cache/log storage

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved Hardware
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    • S
      sg1
      last edited by

      Now I followed the post (which is exactly what I wanted to do as well) but for whatever reason, I have two /var still mounted.  I have rebooted it a couple of times to see if I can see where it occurs or why, but have not been able to figure it out.  Any suggestions I can check as to why?  Otherwise, it works perfectly.  df -h is below:
      Filesystem          Size    Used  Avail Capacity  Mounted on
      /dev/ufs/pfsense0    442M    379M    28M    93%    /
      devfs                1.0k    1.0k      0B  100%    /dev
      /dev/ufs/cf          49M    1.4M    44M    3%    /cf
      /dev/ad1s1a          36G    10k    33G    0%    /var
      /dev/md0              38M    90k    35M    0%    /tmp
      /dev/md1              57M    17M    35M    33%    /var
      devfs                1.0k    1.0k      0B  100%    /var/dhcpd/dev

      Thanks for any help!

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      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by

        What does your modified rc.embedded look like?
        You should see the various messages from the modified script in the boot log, are you seeing those? Are they correct?

        Steve

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        • S
          Steve Evans
          last edited by

          The memory device /dev/md1 is still being created/mounted so as Stephen says you've got an issue with the startup script.

          Steve

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          • S
            sg1
            last edited by

            No.  I see now, that it is incorrect.  I still have the original being mounted due to it.  My question is, where specifically in the original rc.embedded do I change with the Steve's changes as there are other calls in the script that I am not sure are needed or not.  Apologies, just new to the pfsense and Watchguard platforms so I am sure my questions are on the the dumber side….  The original rc.embedded is below:

            rc.embedded - embedded system specific startup information

            For pfSense

            Size of /tmp

            USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE=/usr/bin/grep use_mfs_tmp_size /cf/conf/config.xml | /usr/bin/cut -f2 -d'>' | /usr/bin/cut -f1 -d'<'

            if [ ! -z ${USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE} ] && [ ${USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE} -gt 0 ]; then
                    tmpsize="${USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE}m"
            else
                    tmpsize="40m"
            fi

            Size of /var

            USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE=/usr/bin/grep use_mfs_var_size /cf/conf/config.xml | /usr/bin/                                                                                 cut -f2 -d'>' | /usr/bin/cut -f1 -d'<'
            if [ ! -z ${USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE} ] && [ ${USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE} -gt 0 ]; then
                    varsize="${USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE}m"
            else
                    varsize="60m"
            fi

            Run some initialization routines

            [ -f /etc/rc.d/uzip ] && /etc/rc.d/uzip start

            echo -n "Setting up memory disks…"
            mdmfs -S -M -s ${tmpsize} md /tmp
            mdmfs -S -M -s ${varsize} md /var

            Create some needed directories

            /bin/mkdir -p /var/db

            Ensure vi's recover directory is present

            /bin/mkdir -p /var/tmp/vi.recover/
            echo " done."

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            • S
              Steve Evans
              last edited by

              Here is the complete patched /etc/rc.embedded.

              #!/bin/sh
              #
              # rc.embedded - embedded system specific startup information
              # For pfSense
              
              # Size of /tmp
              USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE=`/usr/bin/grep use_mfs_tmp_size /cf/conf/config.xml | /usr/bin/cut -f2 -d'>' | /usr/bin/cut -f1 -d'<'`
              if [ ! -z ${USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE} ] && [ ${USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE} -gt 0 ]; then
              	tmpsize="${USE_MFS_TMP_SIZE}m"
              else
              	tmpsize="40m"
              fi
              
              # Size of /var
              USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE=`/usr/bin/grep use_mfs_var_size /cf/conf/config.xml | /usr/bin/cut -f2 -d'>' | /usr/bin/cut -f1 -d'<'`
              if [ ! -z ${USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE} ] && [ ${USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE} -gt 0 ]; then
              	varsize="${USE_MFS_VAR_SIZE}m"
              else
              	varsize="60m"
              fi
              
              # Run some initialization routines
              [ -f /etc/rc.d/uzip ] && /etc/rc.d/uzip start
              
              echo -n "Setting up memory disks..."
              mdmfs -S -M -s ${tmpsize} md /tmp
              
              # If a hard disk is installed then mount that on /var
              # otherwise use a ramdisk
              harddisk="/dev/ad1s1a"
              if [ -c $harddisk ]
              then
              	echo -n "Using /var physical disk..."
              	mount -o noatime $harddisk /var
              
              	# Ensure /var/run is removed on boot before daemons are started
              	# It should arguably be a tmpfs, but this works fine
              	rm -r /var/run
              
              	# sshd won't start if /var/empty exists on boot
              	rm -r /var/empty
              else
              	echo -n "Using /var memory disk..."
              	mdmfs -S -M -s ${varsize} md /var
              
              	# Create some needed directories
              	/bin/mkdir -p /var/db
              
              	# Ensure vi's recover directory is present
              	/bin/mkdir -p /var/tmp/vi.recover/
              fi
              
              echo " done."
              
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              • S
                sg1
                last edited by

                Thank you so much Steve!  Works perfectly.  Thanks for your patience….

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                • A
                  atrocity
                  last edited by

                  only my result of a x5500e with a ide SSD from CWC :

                  /dev/ad1s1a
                          512            # sectorsize
                          57872344064    # mediasize in bytes (53G)
                          113031922      # mediasize in sectors
                          0              # stripesize
                          40448          # stripeoffset
                          112134          # Cylinders according to firmware.
                          16              # Heads according to firmware.
                          63              # Sectors according to firmware.
                          OW140822AS1514144      # Disk ident.

                  Seek times:
                          Full stroke:      250 iter in  0.040570 sec =    0.162 msec
                          Half stroke:      250 iter in  0.037379 sec =    0.150 msec
                          Quarter stroke:  500 iter in  0.125276 sec =    0.251 msec
                          Short forward:    400 iter in  0.093555 sec =    0.234 msec
                          Short backward:  400 iter in  0.096201 sec =    0.241 msec
                          Seq outer:      2048 iter in  0.169674 sec =    0.083 msec
                          Seq inner:      2048 iter in  0.123082 sec =    0.060 msec
                  Transfer rates:
                          outside:      102400 kbytes in  1.124830 sec =    91036 kbytes/sec
                          middle:        102400 kbytes in  1.128009 sec =    90779 kbytes/sec
                          inside:        102400 kbytes in  1.125042 sec =    91019 kbytes/sec

                  seems that i don't have to tune anything.
                  I will make the same test with a x750e soon, will let you know if somebody is interrested :)
                  Regards

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    What tool are you testing that with? Did you enable TRIM? Be interesting to see how those figures vary over time once you've moved a few gigs across the drive.

                    Steve

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                    • A
                      atrocity
                      last edited by

                      hi,

                      i simply use this :

                      diskinfo -tv /dev/ad1

                      Trim … i did a try to enable it, but our server don't want it.
                      Don't remember the problem or the error, sorry.

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                      • S
                        Steve Evans
                        last edited by

                        Good to see how quick this can run. If my ISP increases speed x5 I may have to get an SSD!

                        Steve

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                        • S
                          Steve Evans
                          last edited by

                          Having updated to 2.2 the support for my hard-drive now appears rather worse.

                          The atacontrol utility which did exactly what I needed has been superseded by camcontrol. This reports that the disk is in polled mode.

                          $ camcontrol negotiate /dev/ada1 -v 
                          Current parameters:
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): ATA mode: PIO4
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): ATAPI packet length: 0
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): PIO transaction length: 8192
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): tagged queueing: disabled
                          ata0: SIM/HBA version: 1
                          ata0: supports SDTR message
                          ata0: scan bus sequentially
                          ata0: HBA engine count: 0
                          ata0: maximum target: 1
                          ata0: maximum LUN: 0
                          ata0: highest path ID in subsystem: 0
                          ata0: initiator ID: 0
                          ata0: SIM vendor: FreeBSD
                          ata0: HBA vendor: ATA
                          ata0: HBA vendor ID: 0x8086
                          ata0: HBA device ID: 0x266f
                          ata0: HBA subvendor ID: 0x8086
                          ata0: HBA subdevice ID: 0x266f
                          ata0: bus ID: 0
                          ata0: base transfer speed: 3.300MB/sec
                          ata0: maximum transfer size: 131072 bytes
                          

                          I should be able to set the disk to UDMA33 mode however, this is what I get.

                          $ camcontrol negotiate /dev/ada1 -v -U -M UDMA33 -a
                          User parameters:
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): ATA mode: UDMA2
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): ATAPI packet length: 0
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): PIO transaction length: 131072
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): tagged queueing: enabled
                          ata0: SIM/HBA version: 1
                          ata0: supports SDTR message
                          ata0: scan bus sequentially
                          ata0: HBA engine count: 0
                          ata0: maximum target: 1
                          ata0: maximum LUN: 0
                          ata0: highest path ID in subsystem: 0
                          ata0: initiator ID: 0
                          ata0: SIM vendor: FreeBSD
                          ata0: HBA vendor: ATA
                          ata0: HBA vendor ID: 0x8086
                          ata0: HBA device ID: 0x266f
                          ata0: HBA subvendor ID: 0x8086
                          ata0: HBA subdevice ID: 0x266f
                          ata0: bus ID: 0
                          ata0: base transfer speed: 3.300MB/sec
                          ata0: maximum transfer size: 131072 bytes
                          Unit is not ready
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): TEST UNIT READY. CDB: 00 00 00 00 00 00 
                          (pass1:ata0:0:1:0): CAM status: CCB request was invalid
                          Test Unit Ready failed
                          

                          I've tried all manner of variations. Any ideas to get camcontrol to do what a simple

                          atacontrol mode ad1 UDMA6
                          

                          would do before?

                          Thanks,

                          Steve

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                          • stephenw10S
                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                            last edited by

                            Haven't you alread set ata0 to PIO4 only though?
                            The HD and CF are on the same IDE channel right?

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                            • S
                              Steve Evans
                              last edited by

                              Hi Stephen,

                              This is what I'm trying to get my head round at the moment, reading the FreeBSD documentation to better understand the nomenclature.

                              If I boot without specifying

                              hint.ata.0.mode=PIO4
                              

                              I see the following on the console

                              ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
                              ada0: <sandisk sdcfh-004g="" hdx="" 6.02=""> CFA-0 device
                              ada0: Serial Number ABZ042211193008
                              ada0: 66.700MB/s transfers (UDMA4, PIO 512bytes)
                              ada0: 3815MB (7813120 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 7751C)
                              ada0: Previously was known as ad0
                              ada1 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 1 lun 0
                              ada1: <st9402115a 3.01=""> ATA-6 device
                              ada1: Serial Number 5PV09ZED
                              ada1: 100.000MB/s transfers (UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
                              ada1: 38154MB (78140160 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
                              ada1: Previously was known as ad1</st9402115a></sandisk>
                              

                              Rather than

                              ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
                              ada0: <sandisk sdcfh-004g="" hdx="" 6.02=""> CFA-0 device
                              ada0: Serial Number ABZ042211193008
                              ada0: 16.700MB/s transfers (PIO4, PIO 512bytes)
                              ada0: 3815MB (7813120 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 7751C)
                              ada0: Previously was known as ad0
                              ada1 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 1 lun 0
                              ada1: <st9402115a 3.01=""> ATA-6 device
                              ada1: Serial Number 5PV09ZED
                              ada1: 16.700MB/s transfers (PIO4, PIO 8192bytes)
                              ada1: 38154MB (78140160 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
                              ada1: Previously was known as ad1</st9402115a></sandisk>
                              

                              As you point out, this setting affects them both. I've been trying to understand what granularity of control the driver gives me. From the ata man page there's the following which suggests per device control, but I don't currently understand what "specified device" means exactly.

                              @https://www.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=ata(4)&sektion=:

                              hint.ata.X.devX.mode
                                  limits the initial ATA mode for the specified device on the specified channel.

                              hint.ata.X.mode
                                  limits the initial ATA mode for every device on the specified channel.

                              I'm not sure how the master/slave IDE arrangement maps onto the above. Any pointers much appreciated!

                              Thanks,

                              Steve

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                              • stephenw10S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                last edited by

                                Pretty sure the CF slot is always master if a CF card is in it so I would think it's dev0.

                                On my test box here which I haven't set loader.conf.local on it will boot if I use:

                                Hit [Enter] to boot immediately, or any other key for command prompt.
                                Booting [/boot/kernel/kernel] in 4 seconds...
                                
                                Type '?' for a list of commands, 'help' for more detailed help.
                                OK set hint.ata.0.dev0.mode=PIO4
                                OK boot
                                Booting...
                                
                                

                                So I'd say you're good with that.

                                Steve

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                                • S
                                  Steve Evans
                                  last edited by

                                  Thank you sir, you're a scholar and a gentleman!  :)

                                  Your suggestion works a treat. I clearly had a bit of a mental block on what "devX" could be. I'd tried "0", but it hadn't occurred to me to used "dev0".  :-[ I'm clearly not familiar enough with FreeBSD naming conventions.

                                  [code]ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
                                  ada0: <sandisk sdcfh-004g="" hdx="" 6.02="">CFA-0 device
                                  ada0: Serial Number ABZ042211193008
                                  ada0: 16.700MB/s transfers (PIO4, PIO 512bytes)
                                  ada0: 3815MB (7813120 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 7751C)
                                  ada0: Previously was known as ad0
                                  ada1 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 1 lun 0
                                  ada1: <st9402115a 3.01="">ATA-6 device
                                  ada1: Serial Number 5PV09ZED
                                  ada1: 100.000MB/s transfers (UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
                                  ada1: 38154MB (78140160 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
                                  ada1: Previously was known as ad1

                                  I'm now getting the performance I need for my disk used for logs and caching.

                                  diskinfo -tv /dev/ad1
                                  /dev/ad1
                                          512             # sectorsize
                                          40007761920     # mediasize in bytes (37G)
                                          78140160        # mediasize in sectors
                                          0               # stripesize
                                          0               # stripeoffset
                                          77520           # Cylinders according to firmware.
                                          16              # Heads according to firmware.
                                          63              # Sectors according to firmware.
                                          5PV09ZED        # Disk ident.
                                  
                                  Seek times:
                                          Full stroke:      250 iter in   7.926598 sec =   31.706 msec
                                          Half stroke:      250 iter in   6.203416 sec =   24.814 msec
                                          Quarter stroke:   500 iter in   9.877891 sec =   19.756 msec
                                          Short forward:    400 iter in   3.476113 sec =    8.690 msec
                                          Short backward:   400 iter in   2.381591 sec =    5.954 msec
                                          Seq outer:       2048 iter in   0.197696 sec =    0.097 msec
                                          Seq inner:       2048 iter in   0.179296 sec =    0.088 msec
                                  Transfer rates:
                                          outside:       102400 kbytes in   3.135350 sec =    32660 kbytes/sec
                                          middle:        102400 kbytes in   3.745807 sec =    27337 kbytes/sec
                                          inside:        102400 kbytes in   5.382397 sec =    19025 kbytes/sec
                                  
                                  

                                  Steve</st9402115a></sandisk>

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                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Nice! I'm going to have to try that sometime.  :)

                                    Steve

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                                    • stephenw10S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by

                                      In testing the HD issue I ran that benchmark. Thought my result might ammuse you:

                                      [2.2-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: diskinfo -tv /dev/ada0
                                      /dev/ada0
                                              512             # sectorsize
                                              20003880960     # mediasize in bytes (19G)
                                              39070080        # mediasize in sectors
                                              0               # stripesize
                                              0               # stripeoffset
                                              38760           # Cylinders according to firmware.
                                              16              # Heads according to firmware.
                                              63              # Sectors according to firmware.
                                              32K60131T       # Disk ident.
                                      
                                      Seek times:
                                              Full stroke:      250 iter in  11.840086 sec =   47.360 msec
                                              Half stroke:      250 iter in   8.878876 sec =   35.516 msec
                                              Quarter stroke:   500 iter in  15.334866 sec =   30.670 msec
                                              Short forward:    400 iter in   8.639504 sec =   21.599 msec
                                              Short backward:   400 iter in   7.131472 sec =   17.829 msec
                                              Seq outer:       2048 iter in   0.282496 sec =    0.138 msec
                                              Seq inner:       2048 iter in   1.086055 sec =    0.530 msec
                                      Transfer rates:
                                              outside:       102400 kbytes in  23.521335 sec =     4353 kbytes/sec
                                              middle:        102400 kbytes in  20.436978 sec =     5011 kbytes/sec
                                              inside:        102400 kbytes in  48.862760 sec =     2096 kbytes/sec
                                      
                                      

                                      Something not right.  ::) Yet:

                                      [2.2-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: dmesg | grep ada
                                      ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
                                      ada0: <toshiba mk2018gap="" m1.42="" a="">ATA-5 device
                                      ada0: Serial Number 32K60131T
                                      ada0: 100.000MB/s transfers (UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
                                      ada0: 19077MB (39070080 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
                                      ada0: Previously was known as ad0
                                      Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ada0s1a [rw]...</toshiba> 
                                      

                                      Just a knackered old drive? Works fine though, as long as you're not in a hurry!

                                      Steve

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                                      • S
                                        Steve Evans
                                        last edited by

                                        Ouch. Not much use as a cache though as it's no faster than fiber broadband!

                                        Steve

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • M
                                          MacUsers
                                          last edited by

                                          @stephenw10:

                                          [2.2-RELEASE][root@pfSense.localdomain]/root: dmesg | grep ada
                                          ada0 at ata0 bus 0 scbus0 target 0 lun 0
                                          ada0: <toshiba mk2018gap="" m1.42="" a="">ATA-5 device
                                          ada0: Serial Number 32K60131T
                                          ada0: 100.000MB/s transfers (UDMA5, PIO 8192bytes)
                                          ada0: 19077MB (39070080 512 byte sectors: 16H 63S/T 16383C)
                                          ada0: Previously was known as ad0
                                          Trying to mount root from ufs:/dev/ada0s1a [rw]...</toshiba> 
                                          

                                          I was just looking in some old posts - Does it mean you have TRIM enabled on your TOSHIBA MK2018GAP drive?

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • stephenw10S
                                            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                            last edited by

                                            No. I'm pretty sure that device is way too old to support TRIM
                                            TRIM only applies to SSDs anyway.

                                            Steve

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