History of SAS Controller & Drives Summary
<h2>Hardware</h2>
<p>- <strong>Controller</strong>: Adaptec ASR-5405Z 512MB (aacraid driver) - <strong>Server</strong>: srv9 — AMD FX-6300, M5A78L-M USB3, 32GB RAM - <strong>SAS Drives</strong>: - Seagate Exos ST8000NM0075 8TB (LENOVO-X branded) — /media3 - Second identical drive arrived later — /media4 - <strong>SATA Drives</strong>: Also connected via controller</p>
<h2>The Problem</h2>
<p>- Controller visible in dmesg/sg_map but no block device created - `/dev/sg2` showed `PQual=1` "LU temporarily unavailable" - All tools hanging — arcconf, sg commands etc - Controller was trying to build arrays, corrupted SATA partition tables!</p>
<h2>The Solution</h2>
<p><strong>arcconf</strong> (Adaptec management CLI) — version maze: - V4 — hangs waiting for controller to be ready - V3 — "Controllers found: 0" - Working middle version found on Microchip site <strong>Key commands:</strong></p>
{code}
# Check physical devices
arcconf getconfig 1 PD
# Create JBOD (critical step!)
arcconf create 1 jbod 0 0 noprompt
# Where 0 0 is channel/device from PD output
# Verify block device appeared
lsblk
dmesg | tail -20
{/code}
<h2>Why JBOD Was Needed</h2>
<p>- ASR-5405Z is hardware RAID controller — no passthrough mode - Must explicitly create JBOD before OS sees disk as block device - Without JBOD: controller holds disk in "temporarily unavailable" state - JBOD config lives in controller flash, not on disk</p>
<h2>Filesystem Choice</h2>
<p>- <strong>XFS</strong> chosen over ext4 for media storage - Reasons: large files (TV recordings), no reserved blocks (saves ~400GB on 8TB), better performance when nearly full - Both drives formatted XFS, mounted /media3 and /media4</p>
<h2>Second Drive</h2>
<p>- Same process but smoother — crib sheet worked! - Controller showed drive as Ready immediately - JBOD created, partitioned, formatted, mounted</p>
<h2>Key Gotchas</h2>
<p>- Controller needs time to initialise — wait for "Ready" in arcconf before creating JBOD - arcconf JBOD config survives reboots but not moving to different controller - Moving drive to new machine needs JBOD recreated - SATA drives also need JBOD if connected via this controller!</p>
<h2>Cribsheet</h2>
<p>((ASR-5405Z Configuration Notes))</p>
<p><em>Developed with [Claude AI](https://claude.ai) assistance - Anthropic - May 2026</em></p>
<p>- <strong>Controller</strong>: Adaptec ASR-5405Z 512MB (aacraid driver) - <strong>Server</strong>: srv9 — AMD FX-6300, M5A78L-M USB3, 32GB RAM - <strong>SAS Drives</strong>: - Seagate Exos ST8000NM0075 8TB (LENOVO-X branded) — /media3 - Second identical drive arrived later — /media4 - <strong>SATA Drives</strong>: Also connected via controller</p>
<h2>The Problem</h2>
<p>- Controller visible in dmesg/sg_map but no block device created - `/dev/sg2` showed `PQual=1` "LU temporarily unavailable" - All tools hanging — arcconf, sg commands etc - Controller was trying to build arrays, corrupted SATA partition tables!</p>
<h2>The Solution</h2>
<p><strong>arcconf</strong> (Adaptec management CLI) — version maze: - V4 — hangs waiting for controller to be ready - V3 — "Controllers found: 0" - Working middle version found on Microchip site <strong>Key commands:</strong></p>
{code}
# Check physical devices
arcconf getconfig 1 PD
# Create JBOD (critical step!)
arcconf create 1 jbod 0 0 noprompt
# Where 0 0 is channel/device from PD output
# Verify block device appeared
lsblk
dmesg | tail -20
{/code}
<h2>Why JBOD Was Needed</h2>
<p>- ASR-5405Z is hardware RAID controller — no passthrough mode - Must explicitly create JBOD before OS sees disk as block device - Without JBOD: controller holds disk in "temporarily unavailable" state - JBOD config lives in controller flash, not on disk</p>
<h2>Filesystem Choice</h2>
<p>- <strong>XFS</strong> chosen over ext4 for media storage - Reasons: large files (TV recordings), no reserved blocks (saves ~400GB on 8TB), better performance when nearly full - Both drives formatted XFS, mounted /media3 and /media4</p>
<h2>Second Drive</h2>
<p>- Same process but smoother — crib sheet worked! - Controller showed drive as Ready immediately - JBOD created, partitioned, formatted, mounted</p>
<h2>Key Gotchas</h2>
<p>- Controller needs time to initialise — wait for "Ready" in arcconf before creating JBOD - arcconf JBOD config survives reboots but not moving to different controller - Moving drive to new machine needs JBOD recreated - SATA drives also need JBOD if connected via this controller!</p>
<h2>Cribsheet</h2>
<p>((ASR-5405Z Configuration Notes))</p>
<p><em>Developed with [Claude AI](https://claude.ai) assistance - Anthropic - May 2026</em></p>