2.4.3 geom mirror Status Widget and Diags not available
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Hi
Installed a new Supermicro Sys-5018D with Intel Softraid (Mirror) Option. pfSense automagical generates a geom_mirror and managed everything.
But after install i can not retrieve any geom status infos. The GEOM Mirror Widget shows "no mirrors found" The Diagnostics has no geom status option.But it shows that geom is up on boot…
Apr 3 10:13:33 kernel GEOM_RAID: Intel-54e75d75: Provider raid/r0 for volume Volume0 created. Apr 3 10:13:33 kernel GEOM_RAID: Intel-54e75d75: Volume Volume0 state changed from STARTING to OPTIMAL. Apr 3 10:13:33 kernel GEOM_RAID: Intel-54e75d75: Array started. Apr 3 10:13:33 kernel GEOM_RAID: Intel-54e75d75: Subdisk Volume0:1-ada1 state changed from NONE to ACTIVE. Apr 3 10:13:33 kernel GEOM_RAID: Intel-54e75d75: Disk ada1 state changed from NONE to ACTIVE. Apr 3 10:13:33 kernel GEOM_RAID: Intel-54e75d75: Subdisk Volume0:0-ada0 state changed from NONE to ACTIVE.
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Sounds like you don't actually have gmirror. The geom code sees your RAID card, but it isn't a gmirror managed by gmirror, so the usual status doesn't apply since it is managed by the card and not gmirror code.
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Hmm, ok. Sounds logical.
I tried to install 2.4.3 from scratch with both SSDs in AHCI and Legacy (IDE) Mode.
The log shows 2 identical drives ada0 and ada1 at boot time. But offers no option to install as a geom mirror.
Setup offers to install on one of both drives and let the other drive unchanged…Changing the SSD to use Intel BIOS-Raid seems ok, because the kernel automagical uses it. So i think its fine too.
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You don't have a GMIRROR but a GRAID array which is completely different. The GRAID system supports a wide variety of "FakeRAID" metadata formats and yours is a form of Intel software RAID. There is zero reason to use any of these pseudo software RAIDs with pfSense because ZFS mirror is way superior in every respect. Wipe your disks completely to a point where there are no traces left of this software RAID array (using dd(1) is recommended to zero the important parts of the disks) and then do a ZFS mirror install.
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I have no problem with clean wiping the installation. But how do I (manually) install the GMIRROR raid? I installed an identical Supermicro system one year ago with 2.3.4 and it offers the installation of gmirror very early at pfsense-setup. Now with 2.4.3 no (automagical) option appears at boot time to do this. The Intel "fake raid" was not active at this time. Both drives run in AHCI or IDE mode but no auto-option to install gmirror. I'm not the bsd crack to manage this from (a) console without detailed instructions…
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The gmirror option was not recreated in the new installer used on 2.4. You can use a ZFS mirror instead, or install 2.3.x to setup the gmirror and then upgrade.
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OK, I'll try with ZFS mirror next week. Reporting back… Thanks for the help.
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Reinstalled the pfsenses with zfs mirroring today. Switched the SATA Bios Config back from softraid to AHCI and destroyed the softraid config on the HDDs. Everything is ok.
Is there any monitoring or messaging if one drive fails (wigget, mail, or something else)?