[smartmontools-support] CCISS Windows Support

[Christian Franke]

Dan Lukes wrote:
> Christian Franke:
>> Unfortunately there is no change since this ~10 year old mail on old 
>> support ML:
>> https://sourceforge.net/p/smartmontools/mailman/message/19671959/
>> This would at least require documentation (or sample sourcecode) for 
>> pass-through functionality (if any) in CCISS Windows driver and 
>> access to a test machine.
>> Does a vendor specific Windows tool exist which could access SMART data?
>> If not, there is possibly no pass-through support in this driver.
> I did a quick look into hpcisss2.sys
>
> Such driver is CSMI based and it recognizes CC_CSMI_SAS_STP_PASSTHRU 
> control code in CSMI_SAS_SIGNATURE group.
>

Dan,

thanks for the info!


> But it also implements proprietary access control as described in 
> paragraph 5 of:
>> http://www.t10.org/ftp/t10/document.04/04-284r0.pdf
>
> The CC_CSMI_SAS_STP_PASSTHRU requires CSMI=Full access while default 
> is CSMI=Limited - so the CC_CSMI_SAS_STP_PASSTHRU requests are refused.

According to the hpcissx2.inf file, the following registry setting is 
added during driver install:

[HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\HpCISSs2\Parameters\Device]
"DriverParameter"="CSMI=None;"

A similar setting appears on a fresh Windows 10 install for 
"HpSAMD.sys". This driver is always installed for some reason.


> There's a chance that smartmontools will work, using CSMI (-d csmi) 
> method - if the driver will be reconfigured in registry to allow full 
> access.

Setting the "DriverParameter" value to "CSMI=Limited;" should enable 
CC_CSMI_SAS_GET_DRIVER_INFO and ..._GET_PHY_INFO. Some "/dev/csmi*" may 
appear in "smartctl --scan" output then.

If not: Please provide "smartctl -r ioctl,2 --scan" output.

Otherwise: Setting to "CSMI=Full;" should enable C_CSMI_SAS_STP_PASSTHRU 
and smartctl may work.

Be aware that the CSMI code of smartmontools has never been tested with 
this driver. It works with Intel RST drivers which do not support the 
above settings. The CSMI spec T10/04-284r0 is incomplete and has been 
abandoned after this first draft. So please do not test this on a 
production machine.

Thanks,
Christian