LSI HBA instantly passes smart tests?

[Ikasu]

Any advice would be appreciated. Just bought a LSI 9305-16i from fleabay. Flashed the firmware to 16.12 (latest), but noticed when I run smart tests through it (on windows atm), the drives instantly pass...whether it be short or long. When hooking the drives up directly to the mobo, problem vanishes, and can run smart tests as intended, and they take their normal duration to run.

First time using an HBA, so not super duper familiar with everything if there are some quirks with them, but this just seems too weird. So hoping someone has some insight for me here. Originally flashed with the windows sas3flash utility, but to be safe also reflashed with the sas3flash.efi variant via EFI shell...Still the same smart test issue. Drives function as normal aside from this weird phenomenon. Getting full bandwidth simultaneous across 12 drives in CrystalDiskMark. Also drives are passing along smart information, serials, models, etc...all working as intended...Just this smart problem when drives are hooked up to the HBA. Have tried Hard Disk Sentinel, and western digital's provided software for diagnostics...Both pass instantly. Scratching my head here on this one...

 

[toast0]

You may need to use an LSI utility to run smart tests rather than generic tools. If the test returns immediately, probably the card didn't pass it through. You should see data for the past 5 or so smart tests in the disk's log, if you run one through the LBA, then hook up the disk directly, my guess is the test won't show up in the log, because it didn't happen.

 

[mwroobel]

Any advice would be appreciated. Just bought a LSI 9305-16i from fleabay. Flashed the firmware to 16.12 (latest), but noticed when I run smart tests through it (on windows atm), the drives instantly pass...whether it be short or long. When hooking the drives up directly to the mobo, problem vanishes, and can run smart tests as intended, and they take their normal duration to run.

First time using an HBA, so not super duper familiar with everything if there are some quirks with them, but this just seems too weird. So hoping someone has some insight for me here. Originally flashed with the windows sas3flash utility, but to be safe also reflashed with the sas3flash.efi variant via EFI shell...Still the same smart test issue. Drives function as normal aside from this weird phenomenon. Getting full bandwidth simultaneous across 12 drives in CrystalDiskMark. Also drives are passing along smart information, serials, models, etc...all working as intended...Just this smart problem when drives are hooked up to the HBA. Have tried Hard Disk Sentinel, and western digital's provided software for diagnostics...Both pass instantly. Scratching my head here on this one...

Depending on the controller HW version (not just the FW) you may (or may not, depending on the application) be able to properly interrogate SMART across a RAID controller (Even if you are in IT mode.) For example, with many ARECA RAID controllers, even if you are in JBOD most apps will not properly deal with SMART. HD Sentinel, for example WILL show the SMART data where every other widows app I tried failed. LSI controllers have exhibited similar behaviors on various cards.

 

[Ikasu]

You may need to use an LSI utility to run smart tests rather than generic tools. If the test returns immediately, probably the card didn't pass it through. You should see data for the past 5 or so smart tests in the disk's log, if you run one through the LBA, then hook up the disk directly, my guess is the test won't show up in the log, because it didn't happen.

Checked broadcom's page for my card on their downloads section. No such software it seems. All smart data is being passed through though without any additional LSI software. Via CrystalDiskInfo, Smartmontool's for windows, Hard Disk Sentinel, GSmartControl, etc....Still tinkering with tests to see though.

Depending on the controller HW version (not just the FW) you may (or may not, depending on the application) be able to properly interrogate SMART across a RAID controller (Even if you are in IT mode.) For example, with many ARECA RAID controllers, even if you are in JBOD most apps will not properly deal with SMART. HD Sentinel, for example WILL show the SMART data where every other widows app I tried failed. LSI controllers have exhibited similar behaviors on various cards.

Much appreciated. So far every app I've tested shows the smart info....Just executing a test finishes promptly with "Successfully passed", which has been very confusing. I've thrown my truenas drive back into the server and testing a long test through truenas. Little worried as it went from 10% to 90% rather quickly. Right now been sitting at 90% since initiating the test last night before heading off to bed. Ran the Smartctl -a command today via truenas shell on one of the drive, it isn't showing a passed or any mention of a long test in the log. Going to wait another day to see if it pops up as running a long test previously while directly to the mobo took about a day.

Will post again on the progress to see what happens. First time using an HBA, so have been taken aback by this...issue? problem? whatever you want to call it...lol. Besides that the drives are working fine. Just worried that if smart tests aren't working as intended, might lead me to being unaware if something happens to a disk/s and isn't being reported, the potential for data loss worried me, so I made a post.

 

[Dopamin3]

I was going to ask if you were in IT Mode, but I think I found your post on r/homelab saying you are. You need IT Mode for ZFS.

I've always wondered about counterfeit HBAs on eBay. I took a gamble in the past on a 9201-16i (pre-flashed to P19 IT Mode) and 9211-8i (pre-flashed to P20 IT Mode) and they work fully. What outputs do you get if you run "lspci -Dmmnn | grep LSI" and "dmesg | grep LSI" ?

Maybe try rolling back the firmware a version. If it doesn't fix it I would just return it for refund. Buy one from a different seller that has good feedback. Potentially save money with ye ol' reliable 9201-16i, even though it's PCIe 2.0 x8 it can do 4000 MB/s which shouldn't bottleneck your zpool much, if at all.

Edit: did you try different / known good SFF cables?