cciss(4) Kernel Interfaces Manual cciss(4)
NAME
cciss - HP Smart Array block driver
SYNOPSIS
modprobe cciss [ cciss_allow_hpsa=1 ]
DESCRIPTION
Note: This obsolete driver was removed in Linux 4.14, as it is super-
seded by the hpsa(4) driver in newer kernels.
cciss is a block driver for older HP Smart Array RAID controllers.
Options
cciss_allow_hpsa=1: This option prevents the cciss driver from attempt-
ing to drive any controllers that the hpsa(4) driver is capable of con-
trolling, which is to say, the cciss driver is restricted by this option
to the following controllers:
Smart Array 5300
Smart Array 5i
Smart Array 532
Smart Array 5312
Smart Array 641
Smart Array 642
Smart Array 6400
Smart Array 6400 EM
Smart Array 6i
Smart Array P600
Smart Array P400i
Smart Array E200i
Smart Array E200
Smart Array E200i
Smart Array E200i
Smart Array E200i
Smart Array E500
Supported hardware
The cciss driver supports the following Smart Array boards:
Smart Array 5300
Smart Array 5i
Smart Array 532
Smart Array 5312
Smart Array 641
Smart Array 642
Smart Array 6400
Smart Array 6400 U320 Expansion Module
Smart Array 6i
Smart Array P600
Smart Array P800
Smart Array E400
Smart Array P400i
Smart Array E200
Smart Array E200i
Smart Array E500
Smart Array P700m
Smart Array P212
Smart Array P410
Smart Array P410i
Smart Array P411
Smart Array P812
Smart Array P712m
Smart Array P711m
Configuration details
To configure HP Smart Array controllers, use the HP Array Configuration
Utility (either hpacuxe(8) or hpacucli(8)) or the Offline ROM-based Con-
figuration Utility (ORCA) run from the Smart Array's option ROM at boot
time.
FILES
Device nodes
The device naming scheme is as follows:
Major numbers:
104 cciss0
105 cciss1
106 cciss2
105 cciss3
108 cciss4
109 cciss5
110 cciss6
111 cciss7
Minor numbers:
b7 b6 b5 b4 b3 b2 b1 b0
|----+----| |----+----|
| |
| +-------- Partition ID (0=wholedev, 1-15 partition)
|
+-------------------- Logical Volume number
The device naming scheme is:
/dev/cciss/c0d0 Controller 0, disk 0, whole device
/dev/cciss/c0d0p1 Controller 0, disk 0, partition 1
/dev/cciss/c0d0p2 Controller 0, disk 0, partition 2
/dev/cciss/c0d0p3 Controller 0, disk 0, partition 3
/dev/cciss/c1d1 Controller 1, disk 1, whole device
/dev/cciss/c1d1p1 Controller 1, disk 1, partition 1
/dev/cciss/c1d1p2 Controller 1, disk 1, partition 2
/dev/cciss/c1d1p3 Controller 1, disk 1, partition 3
Files in /proc
The files /proc/driver/cciss/cciss[0-9]+ contain information about the
configuration of each controller. For example:
$ cd /proc/driver/cciss
$ ls -l
total 0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2010-09-10 10:38 cciss0
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2010-09-10 10:38 cciss1
-rw-r--r-- 1 root root 0 2010-09-10 10:38 cciss2
$ cat cciss2
cciss2: HP Smart Array P800 Controller
Board ID: 0x3223103c
Firmware Version: 7.14
IRQ: 16
Logical drives: 1
Current Q depth: 0
Current # commands on controller: 0
Max Q depth since init: 1
Max # commands on controller since init: 2
Max SG entries since init: 32
Sequential access devices: 0
cciss/c2d0: 36.38GB RAID 0
Files in /sys
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/model
Displays the SCSI INQUIRY page 0 model for logical drive Y of
controller X.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/rev
Displays the SCSI INQUIRY page 0 revision for logical drive Y of
controller X.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/unique_id
Displays the SCSI INQUIRY page 83 serial number for logical drive
Y of controller X.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/vendor
Displays the SCSI INQUIRY page 0 vendor for logical drive Y of
controller X.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/block:cciss!cXdY
A symbolic link to /sys/block/cciss!cXdY.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/rescan
When this file is written to, the driver rescans the controller
to discover any new, removed, or modified logical drives.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/resettable
A value of 1 displayed in this file indicates that the "reset_de-
vices=1" kernel parameter (used by kdump) is honored by this con-
troller. A value of 0 indicates that the "reset_devices=1" ker-
nel parameter will not be honored. Some models of Smart Array
are not able to honor this parameter.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/lunid
Displays the 8-byte LUN ID used to address logical drive Y of
controller X.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/raid_level
Displays the RAID level of logical drive Y of controller X.
/sys/bus/pci/devices/dev/ccissX/cXdY/usage_count
Displays the usage count (number of opens) of logical drive Y of
controller X.
SCSI tape drive and medium changer support
SCSI sequential access devices and medium changer devices are supported
and appropriate device nodes are automatically created (e.g., /dev/st0,
/dev/st1, etc.; see st(4) for more details.) You must enable "SCSI tape
drive support for Smart Array 5xxx" and "SCSI support" in your kernel
configuration to be able to use SCSI tape drives with your Smart Array
5xxx controller.
Additionally, note that the driver will not engage the SCSI core at init
time. The driver must be directed to dynamically engage the SCSI core
via the /proc filesystem entry, which the "block" side of the driver
creates as /proc/driver/cciss/cciss* at run time. This is because at
driver init time, the SCSI core may not yet be initialized (because the
driver is a block driver) and attempting to register it with the SCSI
core in such a case would cause a hang. This is best done via an ini-
tialization script (typically in /etc/init.d, but could vary depending
on distribution). For example:
for x in /proc/driver/cciss/cciss[0-9]*
do
echo "engage scsi" > $x
done
Once the SCSI core is engaged by the driver, it cannot be disengaged
(except by unloading the driver, if it happens to be linked as a mod-
ule.)
Note also that if no sequential access devices or medium changers are
detected, the SCSI core will not be engaged by the action of the above
script.
Hot plug support for SCSI tape drives
Hot plugging of SCSI tape drives is supported, with some caveats. The
cciss driver must be informed that changes to the SCSI bus have been
made. This may be done via the /proc filesystem. For example:
echo "rescan" > /proc/scsi/cciss0/1
This causes the driver to:
(1) query the adapter about changes to the physical SCSI buses
and/or fiber channel arbitrated loop, and
(2) make note of any new or removed sequential access devices or
medium changers.
The driver will output messages indicating which devices have been added
or removed and the controller, bus, target, and lun used to address each
device. The driver then notifies the SCSI midlayer of these changes.
Note that the naming convention of the /proc filesystem entries contains
a number in addition to the driver name (e.g., "cciss0" instead of just
"cciss", which you might expect).
Note: Only sequential access devices and medium changers are presented
as SCSI devices to the SCSI midlayer by the cciss driver. Specifically,
physical SCSI disk drives are not presented to the SCSI midlayer. The
only disk devices that are presented to the kernel are logical drives
that the array controller constructs from regions on the physical dri-
ves. The logical drives are presented to the block layer (not to the
SCSI midlayer). It is important for the driver to prevent the kernel
from accessing the physical drives directly, since these drives are used
by the array controller to construct the logical drives.
SCSI error handling for tape drives and medium changers
The Linux SCSI midlayer provides an error-handling protocol that is ini-
tiated whenever a SCSI command fails to complete within a certain amount
of time (which can vary depending on the command). The cciss driver
participates in this protocol to some extent. The normal protocol is a
four-step process:
(1) First, the device is told to abort the command.
(2) If that doesn't work, the device is reset.
(3) If that doesn't work, the SCSI bus is reset.
(4) If that doesn't work, the host bus adapter is reset.
The cciss driver is a block driver as well as a SCSI driver and only the
tape drives and medium changers are presented to the SCSI midlayer.
Furthermore, unlike more straightforward SCSI drivers, disk I/O contin-
ues through the block side during the SCSI error-recovery process.
Therefore, the cciss driver implements only the first two of these ac-
tions, aborting the command, and resetting the device. Note also that
most tape drives will not oblige in aborting commands, and sometimes it
appears they will not even obey a reset command, though in most circum-
stances they will. If the command cannot be aborted and the device can-
not be reset, the device will be set offline.
In the event that the error-handling code is triggered and a tape drive
is successfully reset or the tardy command is successfully aborted, the
tape drive may still not allow I/O to continue until some command is is-
sued that positions the tape to a known position. Typically you must
rewind the tape (by issuing mt -f /dev/st0 rewind for example) before
I/O can proceed again to a tape drive that was reset.
SEE ALSO
hpsa(4), cciss_vol_status(8), hpacucli(8), hpacuxe(8)
]8;;http://cciss.sf.net\http://cciss.sf.net]8;;\, and Documentation/blockdev/cciss.txt and Documenta-
tion/ABI/testing/sysfs-bus-pci-devices-cciss in the Linux kernel source
tree
Linux man-pages 6.9.1 2024-05-02 cciss(4)
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