TWS(4)

📦 version 12.2, in debian bookworm, debian trixie, ubuntu jammy, ubuntu noble, ubuntu questing, ubuntu resolute, ubuntu stonking

✨ TWS(4) ✨ — the 3ware 9750 SATA+SAS 6Gb/s RAID controller card driver, bestie 💖

okay so this is a page from the Kernel Interfaces Manual and it's literally all about a RAID driver. strap in. 🎀

🌸 NAME 🌸

tws — the 3ware 9750 SATA+SAS 6Gb/s RAID controller card driver. that's it, that's the name, it's giving very specific and we love that for it. 💅

🦋 SYNOPSIS 🦋

so you wanna get this driver living in your kernel? bestie, you gotta compile it in. drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device scbus
device tws

orrrrr, if you'd rather load it as a module at boot time (iconic lazy-girl move, no cap), just put this one line in loader.conf(5):

tws_load="YES"

⭐ DESCRIPTION ⭐

the tws driver is here to provide support for LSI's 3ware 9750 SATA+SAS 6Gb/s RAID controller cards. 🫶

these controllers are lowkey built different — they feature the LSISAS2108 6Gb/s SAS RAID-on-Chip (ROC) and they come in 4- and 8-port configurations. they support RAID levels 0, 1, 5, 6, 10, 50 and single disk, and they can handle 96 SATA and/or SAS hard drives and SSDs. ninety-six. that's not a typo. main character energy fr fr. 👑

for further hardware information, go check out http://www.lsi.com/. (yes the URL is just there, raw, no hyperlink, we're keeping it exactly as-is because facts don't change, only vibes do. 😌)

💜 HARDWARE 💜

the tws driver supports the following SATA/SAS RAID controller:

  • LSI's 3ware SAS 9750 series

one controller, one bullet, zero filler. slay. ✨

🌈 LOADER TUNABLES 🌈

so these tunables can be set at the loader(8) prompt before you boot the kernel, or you can stash them in loader.conf(5). either way, they're yours to play with:

  • hw.tws.cam_depth — the maximum queued CAM SIM requests for one controller. the default value is 256. 🍓
  • hw.tws.enable_msi — this tunable enables MSI support on the controller, but only if you set it to a non-zero value. the default value is 0, so like, off by default, just so you know. 🙈
  • hw.tws.queue_depth — the maximum queued requests for one controller. (no default listed here, so don't come for me, the original didn't say either 💀)
  • hw.tws.use_32bit_sgls — this one limits the driver to use only 32-bit SG elements, regardless of whether the operating system is running in 64-bit mode. the default value is 0. 🧚

🎀 FILES 🎀

  • /dev/da? — array/logical disk interface
  • /dev/tws? — management interface

two paths, both important, both here. periodt. 💅

🔥 DIAGNOSTICS 🔥

whenever the driver encounters a command failure, it prints out an error code in this format: "ERROR: (<error source>: <error code>):" — and then it follows that up with a text description of the error. 📢

there are also other error messages and warnings that the driver prints out, depending on the kinds of errors that it encounters. so like, the driver is chatty when things go wrong.

and if the driver is compiled with TWS_DEBUG defined, it prints out a whole bunch of debug messages. like, a whole bunch. consider yourself warned, bestie. 😭

💖 SEE ALSO 💖

da(4), scsi(4)

go read those too, they're the supporting cast and they ate. ⭐

👑 AUTHORS 👑

the tws driver was written by Manjunath Ranganathaiah for LSI, and this manual page was written by Xin LI <delphij@FreeBSD.org> for iXsystems, Inc. we stan a credited author moment. 🫶

and that's the whole page, bestie — this version is from the Debian edition, dated October 4, 2011, so it's a certified vintage classic at this point. stay iconic, go forth, and may your RAID arrays never degrade. 💖✨

📦 where this page comes from