Re: unable to run mkfs.btrfs for host managed sata hdd

[David Sterba <dsterba@suse.cz>]

On Fri, Oct 29, 2021 at 09:52:34PM +0800, Jingyun He wrote:
> Hi,
> Thanks for your reply,
> I run these commands under root account.
> 
> After debugging this furthermore,
> 
> The issue looks like LSI 2308 doesn't report it as a host managed device.
> 
> If I connect it to the onboard SATA port, everything is working fine.
> 
> I'm not sure if there is any method to run mkfs.btrfs forcely, as even
> LSI 2308 didn't report it as a host managed device, but it can pass
> most of the libzbc tests.

mkfs relies on the kernel interfaces to access the zone information, ie.
the ioctls to report and reset the zones. AFAIK libzbc works in a
different way and tracks the zone information outside of the device and
can work as an emulation layer.

https://zonedstorage.io/projects/libzbc/
"libzbc command implementation is compliant with the latest published
versions of the ZBC and ZAC standards defined by INCITS technical
committees T10 and T13 (respectively)."

You could connect the two together so there's normal block device that
also works as a native host-managed zoned devices.  For testing I've
been using TCMU runner that utilizes the libzbc library and exports the
block devices backed by file images.

But if the problem is on the lower layer where the LSI controller does
not pass the ZBC ioctls at all I don't see a way how you could use the
combination because simply calling zone reset would not work and that's
quite fundamental limitation.