RSTe service crashes when Storage Spaces is in use

[LNava3]

I've got a Supermicro X9SRE-F motherboard with the 4.1.0.1026 RSTe option ROM and 5.2.2.1022 RSTe drivers & UI. I'm using RSTe to run a boot drive that consists of 2 Samsung SSD 850 PRO SSDs in RAID 1. The OS is Windows Server 2016 Standard.

This system also has an LSI/Avago 9305-16i.

I've discovered that the RSTe service (IAStorDataMgrSvc) will error out immediately upon starting if I've got powered up drives connected to the LSI card *and* the drives are in a Storage Spaces pool. RSTe starts up normally if I have a non-Storage Spaces drive connected to either the LSI card or to another onboard Intel SATA port or if I have no drives (besides the two in the RAID 1).

I'm guessing that the RSTe service is trying to probe or manage the Storage Spaces drives when it shouldn't. Is there a way to configure the RSTe service to not do this?

Here's the error that I see in the Event Viewer Application log:

Log Name: Application

Source: Application Error

Date: 3/3/2018 1:14:48 PM

Event ID: 1000

Task Category: (100)

Level: Error

Keywords: Classic

User: N/A

Computer: server.domain.com

Description:

Faulting application name: IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe, version: 5.2.2.1022, time stamp: 0x5964cea7

Faulting module name: ISDI2.dll, version: 5.2.2.1022, time stamp: 0x5964cd32

Exception code: 0xc0000409

Fault offset: 0x0006149f

Faulting process id: 0x59c

Faulting application start time: 0x01d3b334a80abb3c

Faulting application path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology enterprise\IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe

Faulting module path: C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology enterprise\ISDI2.dll

Report Id: ce7dc142-5c02-4011-90fa-961ea558953b

Faulting package full name:

Faulting package-relative application ID:

Event Xml:

http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event http://schemas.microsoft.com/win/2004/08/events/event">

1000

2

100

0x80000000000000

3566

Application

callisto.lunadesign.net

IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe

5.2.2.1022

5964cea7

ISDI2.dll

5.2.2.1022

5964cd32

c0000409

0006149f

59c

01d3b334a80abb3c

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology enterprise\IAStorDataMgrSvc.exe

C:\Program Files (x86)\Intel\Intel(R) Rapid Storage Technology enterprise\ISDI2.dll

ce7dc142-5c02-4011-90fa-961ea558953b

Many thanks in advance!

[idata]

Hello xvzzy6,

Thanks for your reply and in regards to the specific versions for your platform; it should be in the range from the 4.6 to the 4.7 since they support SATA/AHCI on Intel® C600/C610/C222/C224/C226 Series Chipsets with Intel® Xeon® Ivy Bridge EP Processors, however; the specific version number must the managed by the OEM since they require to ensure the compatibility.Please let us know if this information it's useful for case; also, please remember that if you have more questions or want to add additional details, don't hesitate to contact us, we'll be glad to assist you. Regards,Chris

[idata]

Hello xvzzy6,

Thanks for your time and we're sending you this message as a follow-up to your situation and to see if the information that we've provided you was useful. Also, please remember that if you require more assistance or want to add additional details, we'll be glad to assist youRegards,Chris

[idata]

Hello xyzzy6,

Thanks for your time and we're sending you this message as a follow-up to your situation and to see if the information that we've provided you was useful for your situation. At this point we'll mark this question as solved, if you want to ask more questions please fell free to contact us, we'll be glad to assist youBest regards,Chris

[LNava3]

Hi Chris,

Sorry for the delay. I was wary of experimenting on a production server and it took me a while to build a very similar test server that matches the production one. The only difference is that on the production server, the "other" storage controller is an LSI 9305-16i, on the test server, it is an ancient SIIG SATA II card (that's all I had available). The test server also has less RAM.

I made some interesting discoveries on the test server:

Discovery # 1: With driver v5.2.0.1194 and IaStorUI.exe v5.2.2.1022, the UI stops working (just like on the production server) once the Virtual Disk is created in Storage Spaces.

Discovery # 2: With driver v4.6.0.1048 and IaStorUI.exe v4.6.0.2116, the UI works fine.

Discovery # 3: With driver v5.3.0.1388 and IaStorUI.exe v5.3.0.1412, the UI also works fine.

Bottom line: There is clearly a bug either in driver v5.2.0.1194 and/or IaStorUI.exe v5.2.2.1022.

Note: The RSTe installer warns that the driver cannot be uninstalled, so I was very nervous messing with the driver, especially since this driver lives on the RSTe RAID 1 array. However, the RSTe installer had no problems replacing the driver, regardless of whether the one about to be installed was older or newer. Is this safe to do?

Regards,

xyzzy6

[idata]

Hello xyzzy6,

Thanks for your reply and in regards to the upgrade/downgrade capability with the RSTe drivers, we strongly recommend to contact the OEM since they'll need to ensure that the driver that you're going to use on your server has been fully tested with the motherboard of your machine for compatibility reasons and to have information about RAID rebuild within different versions of the software with their motherboards.Additionally in regards to the situation that you're mentioning on the 5.2 Driver/GUI with the Storage Spaces, that requires to be reviewed by the OEM as well since they need to fully test the compatibility of the driver with their Motherboards to ensure that it'll work properly and will not present this type of situations within different versions. As always, we strongly recommend to create Backups of your important information stored on RAIDs before doing any type of change within the drivers to avoid data loss. Also, please remember that if you require more assistance or want to add additional details, we'll be glad to assist youRegards,Chris.

[LNava3]

Hi Chris,

Unfortunately, the OEM has been of limited help on this topic. They do seem to stand behind the RSTe versions they have made available but are inconsistent on which ones go with which platforms. For example, their site points at the 5.3 versions of the driver/UI for my motherboard but their support staff also *thinks* 4.x is the right version for this motherboard. Since the motherboard is older and the RSTe version has been superseded by a new one, they are extremely unlikely to do any testing.

So, I have a general question for Intel: Assuming I'm using an OEM-approved version of the driver/UI and want to switch to another OEM-approved version, is it safe to switch versions by simply running the RSTe installer like I did on my test box?

And yes, I'm definitely making image-level backups of the volume to ensure I can revert if something goes wrong.

Regards,

xyzzy6

[idata]

Hello xyzzy6,

Thanks for your reply and in regards to the situation that you're describing please allow us a brief time to research on it and we'll be back with you as soon as possible.Please keep in mind that we can't guarantee a solution since the compatibility and testing of RSTe on specific Motherboards requires to be done by the OEM; however, please remember that if you require more assistance or want to add additional details, we'll be glad to assist you.Best regards,Chris

[LNava3]

Hi Chris,

I completely understand. Keep in mind that I'm not asking about the OEM compatibility at this point....I'm asking if the RSTe installer & driver are designed to safely update the driver (up or down in revision) on a live system via the installer. And if the dev team has any tips for increasing the chances this works, those would be great too.

Regards,

xyzzy6

[idata]

Hello xyzzy6,

Thanks for your time and in regards to your situation and after researching on it; we recommend you to test your equipment with RSTe version 4.7 since it's the latest supported version for your Ivy Bridge based platform. About the download of this version of the software you'll need to contact your OEM so they can provide you with it for compatibility reasons.Additionally, please remember that if you require more assistance or want to add additional details, we'll be glad to assist youBest regards,Chris

[idata]

Hello xyzzy6,

Thanks for your time and we're sending you this message as a follow-up to your case and to see if the information that we've provided you was useful for your situation. Also, please remember that if you require more assistance or want to add additional details, we'll be glad to assist youRegards,Chris

[idata]

Hello xyzzy6,

Thanks for your time and we're sending you this message as a follow-up to your question and to see if the information that we've provided you was useful for your situation. At this point we'll mark this question as solved; however, if you want to ask more questions please fell free to contact us, we'll be glad to assist youBest regards,Chris