can't trim SSD connected via onboard Intel SATA ports

[hththt]

Hi,

 

I'm new to Unraid. I have read up a lot on it over the past 2 months and took the plunge to migrate my Windows Home Server 2011 over to Unraid. It's great to be a part of the community here.

 

I have a Samsung 860 EVO I use for my cache drive. I installed Dynamix TRIM plugin to get this trimmed at 3AM everyday, but I kept getting the error:

fstrim: /mnt/cache: the discard operation is not supported

 

I got this same error when running via the Terminal.

root@nas:~# fstrim /mnt/cache
fstrim: /mnt/cache: the discard operation is not supported

 

I checked to make sure the drive supports TRIM

root@nas:~# hdparm -I /dev/sdb 2>&1 | grep TRIM
           *    Data Set Management TRIM supported (limit 8 blocks)
           *    Deterministic read ZEROs after TRIM

 

I have been trying to troubleshoot this over the past 2 weeks with no success. I'm hoping you guys can point me to what to try next.

 

My setup:

Mobo: Supermicro X10DRi-T with Intel C612
SSD drive: Samsung 860 EVO 4TB 2.5" SATA SSD
Connection method: Onboard SATA ports

Unraid version: 6.8.2

 

Things I have tried (running the TRIM command via the Terminal manually for each of the below):

 

1. This mobo has 10 SATA ports: 4 I-SATA ports, 2 DOM I-SATA ports and 4 S-SATA ports. From looking at the mobo manual, all SATA ports are connected to Intel SATA controllers. I have tried 1 of each variant and got the same error.

 

2. I tried different SATA cables and got the same error.

 

3. I stopped the array, mounted the drive via Unassigned Device and for the same error:

root@nas:~# fstrim -v /mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_4TB_S4WUNE0M802047R
fstrim: /mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_4TB_S4WUNE0M802047R: the discard operation is not supported

 

4. I tried an old SSD I have on hand and this one seemed to work:

root@nas:~# fstrim -v /mnt/disks/M4-CT512M4SSD1_0000000012330912F659-part2
/mnt/disks/M4-CT512M4SSD1_0000000012330912F659-part2: 68.8 MiB (72119296 bytes) trimmed
root@nas:~# fstrim -v /mnt/disks/M4-CT512M4SSD1_0000000012330912F659-part4
/mnt/disks/M4-CT512M4SSD1_0000000012330912F659-part4: 306.7 GiB (329315692544 bytes) trimmed

 

5. I booted into Windows and installed Samsung Magician on the spare SSD I have above and the Samsung drive appears to be genuine and has the latest firmware.

 

I attached my diagnostic to this post.

 

I hope I am not missing something obvious. If I am, please pardon my ignorance and I appreciate you guys pointing me in the right direction.

I think this means that for some odd reason, this Samsung drive does not support TRIM? Which is weird since it's a very popular drive.

 

Please let me know what you think. Thanks!

nas-diagnostics-20200210-1925.zip

Edited February 11, 2020 by hththt

[Squid]

You're positive it's not hooked up to the SAS controller?

[hththt]

Hi Squid,

 

Yeap. Positive. The Samsung SSD cache drive is hooked up directly to one of the onboard SATA ports.

 

Only my 12 spinning HDDs are hooked up to the SAS3 backplane and then to a 9300-8i controller.

Edited February 11, 2020 by hththt

[JorgeB]

The 860 EVO supports trim, in fact it should even work with the LSI controller, since it's a SAS3 model and the SSD supports deterministic read zeros after trim, you can try again after connecting it to the LSI but would be surprised if it worked, likely an issue with the SSD, not with the 860 EVO in general which is known to work with Unraid and used by many, but with that one, or an issue with the 860 EVO 4TB model in general, since there won't be many in use with Unraid.

[hththt]

Hi johnnie.black,

 

Thank you for your reply.

 

I just tried connecting the SSD to the backplane so that it goes through the SAS3008 and yeap as you suspected, same error. At this point, I’m inclined to say there is something wrong with either this drive or with the 4TB model in general. Is there a way to verify whether TRIM works in Windows? Since I can boot into Windows on this same box, I can try to verify if it works on Windows.

[JorgeB]

29 minutes ago, hththt said:

I can try to verify if it works on Windows.

Not sure it's so easy in Windows since you probably can only check if trim is enable or not, maybe difficult to confirm if the SSD it's actually being trimmed, but see here.

[hththt]

I actually ran and checked that DisableDeleteNotify command when I booted into Windows to run Samsung Magician and TRIM was enabled from Windows perspective. I was wondering how to check if it’s being trimmed successfully but as you mentioned, no easy way to do this. Also Windows can’t mount btrfs as is.

 

I will probably try to get a hold of another 4TB from a different source and see if it’s this specific drive. I will report back but in the meantime, if there’s anything else you guys can think of, I can give it a try.

 

Thank you for your help thus far.

[hththt]

I got a hold of another 860 EVO 4TB, formatted to btrfs and mounted it under UD. But I got the same error as the other drive. At this point, I believe that there is probably something with the 4TB model of this drive. I will see if I can get my hand on a 2TB model and try again.

 

Just wanted to circle back in case someone runs into the same issue in the future

root@nas:~# fstrim -v /mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_4TB_S596NE0MA02175A
fstrim: /mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_4TB_S596NE0MA02175A: the discard operation is not supported

 

[JorgeB]

1 hour ago, hththt said:

there is probably something with the 4TB model of this drive

Agree, it's the most probable explanation, please keep us updated.

[testdasi]

8 hours ago, hththt said:

I got a hold of another 860 EVO 4TB, formatted to btrfs and mounted it under UD. But I got the same error as the other drive. At this point, I believe that there is probably something with the 4TB model of this drive. I will see if I can get my hand on a 2TB model and try again.

 

Just wanted to circle back in case someone runs into the same issue in the future

root@nas:~# fstrim -v /mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_4TB_S596NE0MA02175A
fstrim: /mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_4TB_S596NE0MA02175A: the discard operation is not supported

 

I have 850 Evo 2TB and 860 Evo 4TB. They all trim fine. Perhaps it's a peculiarity with your motherboard.

[hththt]

22 minutes ago, testdasi said:

I have 850 Evo 2TB and 860 Evo 4TB. They all trim fine. Perhaps it's a peculiarity with your motherboard.

That's possible. But I think if it was mobo-related, it would be at least a combination of the mobo (the Intel SATA controllers) and the SSD since as mentioned in the original post, I was able to run TRIM on an old Crucial M4 SSD 512GB just fine.

[JorgeB]

3 hours ago, testdasi said:

860 Evo 4TB. They all trim fine. Perhaps it's a peculiarity with your motherboard.

Strange, since it's also failing to trim on the LSI, so not board, maybe different firmware?

[hththt]

14 hours ago, johnnie.black said:

Strange, since it's also failing to trim on the LSI, so not board, maybe different firmware?

I tried with the fw the SSD came with (whichever that was) and then booted into Windows to upgrade to the latest (RVT04B6Q) and got the errors either times.

 

I should have a 860 EVO 2TB tomorrow to try. I will report back.

[hththt]

Winner winner chicken dinner

root@nas:~# fstrim -v /mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_2TB_S597NJ0MC06295J
/mnt/disks/Samsung_SSD_860_EVO_2TB_S597NJ0MC06295J: 1.8 TiB (1999323762688 bytes) trimmed

 

So I would say avoid the 4TB for now.

 

Odd though since the only difference between the 2TB model and the 4TB model is the amount of LPDDR4 DRAM. I wonder if it has anything to do with the block size (like 512b vs 4k on > 2TB HDDs).

 

I sort of want to try another 4TB drive. The reason why I went with the 860 EVO was because of the endurance rating. If you guys know another 4TB drive that would TRIM fine and has decent endurance rating, please let me know. Thanks!