Error recovery control: Difference between revisions

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=== ZFS ===

The [[ZFS|ZFS filesystem]] was writtendesigned to immediately write data to a sector that reports as bad or takes an excessively long time to read (such as non-TLER drives); this will usually force an immediate sector remap on a weak sector in most drives.{{Citation needed|date=March 2022}}

===RAID controllers===

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===ATA-8 standard===

The 2006 ATA-8 standard defines a SCT {{tt|Error Recovery Control}} command.<ref>[https://www.singlix.org/trdos/8086/archive/specs/D1699r3e-ATA8_ACS.pdf–pdf ATA/ATAPI Command Set (ATA8-ACS) ]</ref> For hard drives that implement this interface, the {{Mono|smartctl}} utility (part of the [[smartmontools]] package) can be used to change the error-recovery timeout via {{code|-l scterc}}.<ref name=greg>{{Cite web |author=Richard Gregory |url=http://abatis.org.uk/projects/erc/ |title=Author's description of the original patch to smartctl that implemented that feature |access-date=2013-02-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130910034510/http://cgi.csc.liv.ac.uk:80/~greg/projects/erc/ |archive-date=2013-09-10 |url-status=live }}</ref> In 2018, ACS-4 added a functionality for the setting to persist across reboot; it is now supported by smartctl.<ref>{{cite web |title=#1427 (Add support for SCT Error Recovery Timer features added in ACS-4) – smartmontools |url=https://www.smartmontools.org/ticket/1427 |website=www.smartmontools.org}}</ref>

Controlling the timeout behavior through the {{Mono|smartctl}} utility may not work on all hard disk drives because some manufacturers have changed their desktop drives not to include the support for the ERC parameter,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.spinics.net/lists/raid/msg38964.html|title=Re: md RAID with enterprise-class SATA or SAS drives|work=spinics.net}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://knowledge.seagate.com/articles/en_US/FAQ/203991en|title=Seagate FAQ: What is Error Recovery Control?|work=seagate.com}}</ref> purportedly to force sales of their more expensive RAID/enterprise models.{{Citation needed|date=April 2016}} Richard Gregory, who wrote the original ERC patch for smartctl, reports that Western Digital retracted ERC support by releasing a new model without notice.<ref name=greg/>

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=== SCSI standard ===

SBC-4 describes a RECOVERY TIME LIMIT field in the Read-Write Error Recovery mode page used to define how the drive performs error recovery.<ref>{{cite web |title=INCITS 506-202x - Information technology - SCSI Block Commands - 4 (SBC-4) draft revision 22 |url=https://standards.incits.org/apps/group_public/download.php/124286/livelink |access-date=22 May 2023 |date=15 September 2020}}</ref> The sdparm program is available tocan change this setting with {{code|1=--set=RTL}}.<ref>{{man|8|sdparm|Linux}}</ref>

=== Vendor utilities ===

==== Western Digital ====

A {{Mono|WDTLER.EXE}} utility allows the enabling or disabling of the TLER parameter on Western Digital hard drives. This utility is written for [[DOS]]. The utility works on and makes changes to all compatible Western Digital hard disk drives connected to the computer. The change survives power-cycling.<ref name=greg/> Western Digital used to mention the tool in an FAQ.<ref name=customer-service>{{cite web |title=TLER / CCTL / ERC thread |url=https://hardforum.com/threads/tler-cctl-erc-thread.1562128/ |website=[H]ard{{!}}Forum |date=16 November 2010}}</ref>

The utility comes with three batch files, {{Mono|TLERSCAN.BAT}} to get the current state of the TLER setting on all the hard drives, {{Mono|TLER-ON.BAT}} to enable TLER, and {{Mono|TLER-OFF.BAT}} to disable TLER. The included {{Mono|TLER-ON.BAT}} will set the Read & Write TLER time to seven seconds. It is possible to can use the {{Mono|WDTLER.EXE}} utility directly with the <code>-r# -w#</code> parameters for a custom timeout.

Western Digital claims that using the {{Mono|WDTLER.EXE}} utility on newer drives can damage the firmware and make the disk unusable. The utility is no longer available from Western Digital, and new drives will not be able to have the TLER setting changed. RE disks are only suitable for RAID arrays and Caviar are only suitable for non-RAID use. The utility still works for older drives{{which|date=May 2023}}<!-- what is the cutoff? -->.

==== Hitachi ====

Hitachi customer service stated in 2009 that there is a Feature Tool for changing ERC (referred to as CCTL).<ref name=customer-service/>

==== Seagate ====

Seagate provides a {{Mono|openSeaChest}} utility to allow you to interrogate and change many firmware settings including TLER. If you cannot use <code>smartctl -l scterr,x,y</code> to set the TLER, the relevant command-line commands are <code>openSeaChest_Configure -d /dev/sg0 --sctReadTimer</code> and <code>openSeaChest_Configure -d /dev/sg0 --sctWriteTimer</code>.

==References==

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==External links==

* [https://raid.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Timeout_Mismatch Linux Raid wiki: Timeout Mismatch]

* [https://archive.today/20130121054825/http://wdc.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1397/p/227,283/session/L3RpbWUvMTMyMTQzOTc4NS9zaWQvdVhvYmpmSms%3D Western Digital FAQ answer ID 1397: Difference between Desktop edition and RAID (Enterprise) edition drives]

* [http://www.wdc.com/wdproducts/library/other/2579-001098.pdf Time-Limited Error Recovery (TLER) Information Sheet], Western Digital, January 2013

* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071103042201/http://www.samsung.com/global/business/hdd/learningresource/whitepapers/LearningResource_CCTL.html Samsung CCTL]