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    Problem Capturing right Host Primary Disk with INTEL VROC RAID1

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    • N
      nils98 @george1421
      last edited by

      @george1421 I have now tried to create a new RAID via the Fog. But unfortunately it doesn’t work properly. It creates something under /dev/md0 but Fog cannot find it, even with lsblk /dev/md0 no longer appears.
      20240223_170230763_iOS.jpg
      In addition, I can no longer see the RAID in the BIOS. I can then create a new one here, which Fog sees under “lsblk”, but again it can’t do anything with it.

      I found a few more commands in the Intel document, but all of them only produce errors.
      “mdadm --detail-platform” for example.
      Screenshot 2024-02-25 155200.png
      Is there a way I can load the drivers from the Vroc into the Fog?
      I’m not that experienced with this, but I think it would solve some of my problems.

      george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • george1421G
        george1421 Moderator @nils98
        last edited by

        @nils98 I guess lets run these commands to see where they go.

        lspci -nn| more We want to look through the output. We are specifically looking for hardware related to the disk controller. Normally I would have you look for raid or sata but I think this hardware is somewhere in between. I specifically need the hex code that identifies the hardware. It will be in the form of [XXXX:XXXX] where the X’s will be a hex value.

        The output of lsblk

        Then this one is going to be a bit harder but lets run this command, but if it doesn’t output anything then you will have to manually look through the log file to see if there are any messages about missing drivers.

        grep -i firm /var/log/syslog The first one will show us if we are missing any supplemental firmware needed to configure the hardware.

        grep -i sata -i raid -i drive /var/log/syslog This one will look for those keywords in the syslog.

        If that fails you may have to manually look through this log.

        Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

        N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • N
          nils98 @george1421
          last edited by

          @george1421 Here is the output.
          Screenshot 2024-02-26 094637.png

          lblk
          Screenshot 2024-02-26 094910.png

          Unfortunately there is no syslog, but I found something under /var/log/messages.
          Screenshot 2024-02-26 095418.png

          I hope it is ok that I just send the screenshots
          If you want me to look for more in the messages, please let me know

          george1421G C 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • george1421G
            george1421 Moderator @nils98
            last edited by george1421

            @nils98 There are a few interesting things in here, but nothing remarkable. I see this is a server chassis of some kind. I also see there is sata and nvme disks in this server. A quick look of vroc and this is designed for nvme drives and not sata and this is on cpu raid.

            Is your array with the sata drives /dev/sda and /dev/sdb or with the nvme drives?

            I remember seeing something in the forums regarding the intel xscale processor and vmd. I need to see if I can find those posts.

            For completeness, what is the manufacturer and model of this server. What is the target OS for this server. Did you setup the raid configuration in the bmc or firmware, so the drive array is already configured?

            And finally if you boot a linux live cd does it properly see the raid array.
            Lastly for debugging with FOS linux if you do the following you can remote into the FOS Linux system.

            1. PXE boot into debug mode (capture or deploy)
            2. Get the ip address of the target computer with ip a s
            3. Give root a password with passwd just make it something simple like hello it will be reset at next reboot.
            4. now with putty or ssh you can connect to the fos linux engine to run commands remotely. This makes it easier to copy and paste into the fos linux engine.

            Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • C
              Ceregon @nils98
              last edited by

              @nils98 I don’t know your prerequisities.

              Our machines get delivered with a preinstalled windows.

              The RAID1 is also already assembled.

              We do not create a raid 1 via mdadm in fog. Also i did not inject any drivers for VROC.

              I think /dev/md0 get’s created because of the use of the kernel-parameter “mdraid=true” but it’s empty.

              If you check in bios/uefi. Is there a raid 1 shown? If not can you create one? I never had problems to see my preassembled VROC raid1 with “lsblk” in debug mode.

              N R 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 1
              • N
                nils98 @Ceregon
                last edited by

                @george1421 the Vroc Raid is created via the Sata /dev/sda and /dev/sdb.
                The Nvme are only content discs that are later connected to Windows.

                The board is a Supermicro X12SPI-TF running Windows110.
                Last time we created the raid with the Windows Install. But I had already created it via the bios. Actually it is already created and I don’t want to touch it with the Fog 🙂

                I will test Linux live later.
                I had already read about connecting via Putty here, thanks.

                @Ceregon That was exactly the same for us.
                The bios shows me a Raid 1 with both SSDs and I can also create a new one there if necessary.
                as you can see above, no raid is listed via “lsblk”.

                N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • N
                  nils98 @nils98
                  last edited by

                  @george1421 with Debian 12 live I recognize the raid and vroc 😞
                  any ideas what I can change in the VOS to make it look exactly like this?
                  20240227_154259266_iOS-min.jpg
                  20240227_154342954_iOS.jpg
                  20240227_154450019_iOS.jpg

                  george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • george1421G
                    george1421 Moderator @nils98
                    last edited by george1421

                    @nils98 Nice, this means its possible with the FOG FOS kernel. If the linux live cd did not work then you would be SOL.

                    OK so lets start with (under the live image) lets run this commands.

                    lsmod > /tmp/modules.txt
                    lspci -nnk > /tmp/pcidev.txt

                    use scp or winscp on windows to copy these tmp files out and post them here. Also grab the /var/log/messages or /var/log/syslog and post them here. Let me take a look at them to see 1) what dynamic modules are loaded and/or the kernel modules linked to the PCIe devices.

                    Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                    N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • N
                      nils98 @george1421
                      last edited by

                      @george1421 Here are the files.
                      Unfortunately I have not found a messages or syslog file, I have only found a boot log file in the folder.

                      boot.txt
                      modules.txt
                      pcidev.txt

                      george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • george1421G
                        george1421 Moderator @nils98
                        last edited by

                        @nils98 Nothing is jumping out at me as to the required module. The VMD module is required for vroc and that is part of the FOG FOS build. Something I hadn’t asked you before, what version of FOG are you using and what version of the FOS Linux kernel are you using? If you pxe boot into the FOS Linux console then run uname -a it will print the kernel version.

                        Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                        N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • N
                          nils98 @george1421
                          last edited by

                          @george1421
                          FOG currently has version 1.5.10.16.
                          FOS 6.1.63
                          I set up the whole system a month ago. I only took over the clients from another system, which had FOG version 1.5.9.122.

                          The Raid PC has now been added.

                          george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • george1421G
                            george1421 Moderator @nils98
                            last edited by

                            @nils98 said in Problem Capturing right Host Primary Disk with INTEL VROC RAID1:

                            FOS 6.1.63

                            OK good deal I wanted to make sure you were on the latest kernel to ensure we weren’t dealing with something old.

                            I rebuilt the kernel last night with what thought might be missing, then I saw that mdadm was updated so I rebuilt the entire fos linux system but it failed on the mdadm updated program. It was getting late last night so I stopped.

                            With the the linux kernel 6.1.63, could you pxe boot it into debug mode and then give root a password with passwd and collect the ip address of the target computer with ip a s then connect to the target computer using root and password you defined. Download the /var/log/messages and/or syslog if they exist. I want to see if the 6.1.63 kernel is calling out for some firmware drivers that are not in the kernel by default. If I can do a side by side with what you posted from the live linux kernel I might be able to find what’s missing.

                            Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                            N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • N
                              nils98 @george1421
                              last edited by

                              @george1421 here is the message file

                              messages.txt

                              george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                              • george1421G
                                george1421 Moderator @nils98
                                last edited by

                                @nils98 Ok there have been a few things I gleaned by looking over everything in details.

                                The stock FOS linux kernel looks like its working because I see this in the messages file during boot. I do see all of the drives being detected.

                                Mar  1 15:46:40 fogclient kern.info kernel: md: Waiting for all devices to be available before autodetect
                                Mar  1 15:46:40 fogclient kern.info kernel: md: If you don't use raid, use raid=noautodetect
                                Mar  1 15:46:40 fogclient kern.info kernel: md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
                                Mar  1 15:46:40 fogclient kern.info kernel: md: autorun ...
                                Mar  1 15:46:40 fogclient kern.info kernel: md: ... autorun DONE.
                                

                                This tells me its scanning but not finding an existing array. It would be handy to have the live CD startup file to verify that is the case.

                                Intel VROC is the rebranded Intel Rapid Store Technology [RSTe]

                                ref: https://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/download/19472/intel-rapid-storage-technology-enterprise-intel-rste-software-raid-driver-for-the-intel-server-board-m10jnp2sb.html

                                There is no setting for CONFIG_INTEL_RST in the current kernel configuration file: https://github.com/FOGProject/fos/blob/master/configs/kernelx64.config Its not clear if this is a problem or not, but just connecting the dots between VROC and RSTe: https://cateee.net/lkddb/web-lkddb/INTEL_RST.html I did enable it in the test kernel below

                                Test kernel based on linux kernel 6.6.18 (hint: newer kernel that is available via fog repo).
                                https://drive.google.com/file/d/12IOjoKmEwpCxumk9zF1vtQJt523t8Sps/view?usp=drive_link

                                To use this kernel copy it to /var/www/html/fog/service/ipxe directory and keep its existing name. This will not overwrite the FOG delivered kernel. Now go to the FOG Web UI and go to FOG Configuration->FOG Settings and hit the expand all button. Search for bzImage, replace bzImage name with bzImage-6.6.18-vroc2 then save the settings. Note this will make all of your computers that boot into fog load this new kernel. Understand this is untested and you can always put things back by just replacing bzImage-6.6.18-vroc2 with bzImage in the fog configuration.

                                Now pxe boot into a debug console on the target computer.

                                Do the normal routine to see if lsblk and cat /proc/mdstat and mdm --detailed-platform returns anything positive.

                                If the kernel doesn’t assemble the array correctly then we will have to try to see if we can manually assemble the array using mdadm tool.

                                I should say that we need to ensure the array already exists before we perform these test because if the array is defunct or not created we will not see it with the above tests.

                                Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                                N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • N
                                  nils98 @george1421
                                  last edited by

                                  @george1421 Unfortunately, nothing has changed.
                                  “mdm --detailed-platform” does not find “mdm” with “mdadm --detail-platform” it still shows the same error.
                                  Screenshot 2024-02-25 155200.png

                                  I have also searched the log files under the live system again but unfortunately found nothing.

                                  george1421G N 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • george1421G
                                    george1421 Moderator @nils98
                                    last edited by

                                    @nils98 Well that’s not great news. I really thought that I had it with including the intel rst driver. Would you mind sending me the messages log from booting this new kernel? Also make sure when you are in debug mode that you run uname -a and make sure the kernel version is right.

                                    Please help us build the FOG community with everyone involved. It's not just about coding - way more we need people to test things, update documentation and most importantly work on uniting the community of people enjoying and working on FOG!

                                    N 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • N
                                      nils98 @george1421
                                      last edited by

                                      @george1421 Here are the logs

                                      Screenshot 2024-03-04 183333.png

                                      messages.txt

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                                      • N
                                        nils98 @nils98
                                        last edited by

                                        @george1421

                                        I apologise for not getting in touch for so long.

                                        But I was able to find startup logs with Ubuntu live and my raid is recognised directly.
                                        Hope the logs help.

                                        syslog.txt

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • R
                                          rdfeij
                                          last edited by

                                          This post is deleted!
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                                          • R
                                            rdfeij
                                            last edited by

                                            Hi everyone, reading the investigations allready done gives me a feeling you got close to a fix to this.

                                            I got the experimental vroc file from the download link earlier in this topic.

                                            I have exactly the same issues, Intel VROC / Optane with 2 NVME in raid1.
                                            I can see the individual nvme’s but not the raid array/volume.

                                            Is there anywhere near to be expected a fix for this?

                                            george1421G 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
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