2010-08-28 -- 2010-09-07
I purchased an Adaptec 2405 RAID SAS controller from a local supplier in Stockholm Sweden, for use with just one disk. The system that will get this disk runs FreeBSD 8.1.
The controller's documentation is self-contradictory and inconsistent in various ways. Much of it is also out-of-date, mentioning obsolete versions of the operating system it claims to support (such as FreeBSD 6.2 instead of current ones). Other places claim support for FreeBSD 8, which is why I purchased it.
Configuring the controller to just work as a plain SAS controller without any RAID/JBOD functionality is supposed to work according to various Adaptec sources, including the manual. Except that how to actually do that is not documented, and as far as I can tell, it is not possible.
Configuring the controller in JBOD or in RAID mode does not really mean the controller is configured at all. Instead, Adaptec uses the last 59 MB (according to documentation) of each disk for this purpose. You read me right, 59 megabyte.
So, since one cannot apparently configure the controller to work as a plain controller (without JBOD or RAID), I went ahead to configure an array of just the one disk. I carefully followed the manual. Things appeared to work. I even could proceed to install FreeBSD. But rebooting the new install results in either crashes or hangs (which of these things happen depends on various apparently irrelevant things like partition sizes). I investigated this in some detail, and it appears that either the FreeBSD driver (written by Adaptec) or the 2405 firmware is seriously broken. I then created several same-size partitions, either in the Adaptec ACU or as FreeBSD partitions within one array, I can newfs any of these partitions, but the first one is then immediately clobbered by something, making it impossible to mount it even immediately after newfs. This is 100% reproducible for any tried partition method or partition size. This explains why the system crashes while booting!
Finally, I determined that using an array with my single disk was simply too buggy, even if I could perhaps get it to work by skipping the first few GB of the disk. So I decided to go with a JBOD (for "Just a Bunch Of Disks"). I deleted my arrays, and configured a JBOD. (The Adaptec ACU allows one to optionally morph this to a "Volume", which I also tried, with the clobbering results of above.) With a JBOD, the controller does not report itself as a bootable unit to the system BIOS. FreeBSD won't even install, while Debian will. This is somewhat pointless, since of course one cannot then boot any installed operating system.
At this point, I try to contact Adaptec support, before returning the product as defective. I am an extremely persistent person, and having spent 100 hours on this project already, I really want to get things to work. (But, will I ever bet the gmplib.org development site on this controller?)
To get access to Adaptec support, you need to register as "a member" before you can "register the product", which is required before you can get a "TSID" which is required to ask a question. You get the picture! I really try to get this done, so I try to generate a "TSID" from the product's serial number, but I cannot get a "TSID" since the adaptec.com registration rejects the serial number printed on the product.
At this point, I am told by the site to fill out a form about the registration troubles. In spite of that I am already logged in, I need to fill out the membership name and password. But unlike in other places of the site, the login here does not work! My user id is said to not exist. I cannot report to Adaptec that I cannot get a "TSID" and I cannot get through to them in any other way without a "TSID".
Finally, I decided to email Adaptec, but have yet to get a reply. Then I
decided to call them, so I chose
"Contact
Adaptec" in the menu: File not found.
But I finally found some numbers to call. The first five times I called, a
voice replies with "Your call has gotten priority status". After about 10
minutes I am re-routed to a voice mailbox, which reports that the voice
mailbox is overfull. The sixth time I call, I reach a sales person that
generates a "TSID" for me. (He claims that the "TSID" should have been
included in the package; it was not. The sticker just have a serial number on
it.) The sales person was not at all alarmed that my controller's serial
number was rejected by Adaptec; this is apparently how things work. He did not
believe I had gotten a counterfeit product.
Using this "TSID" I finally reached a support person in the evening of
2010-09-07. The person was actually helpful and seemed reasonably competent,
and he said that he will try to understand the problem.
This is a bit of a joke really! Does Adaptec products create so much
trouble that they need to make it an ordeal to reach support?
I few weeks later Adaptec got back to me, with the message that their
software was indeed buggy. At that point, I had already returned the product.