Virident FlashMAX II User manual

Virident FlashMAX II
User Guide for Linux
© 2012-13 Virident Systems

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide, Version 3.1.1
Table of Contents
1Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 1
2System Requirements ........................................................................................................................... 1
3Hardware Installation ........................................................................................................................... 1
3.1 Bracket Installation ....................................................................................................................... 2
3.2 PCI Slot Selection .......................................................................................................................... 3
4System BIOS Settings ............................................................................................................................ 3
4.1 Fan Speed Settings in BIOS ........................................................................................................... 4
4.2 Processor Settings in BIOS ............................................................................................................ 4
5OS Settings ............................................................................................................................................ 5
5.1 Ubuntu: Use “generic” kernels for highest IO performance........................................................ 5
5.2 SUSE: Enable unsupported modules to allow driver loading....................................................... 5
5.3 Enhance performance by disabling CPU throttling....................................................................... 5
6Installing FlashMAX II Software ............................................................................................................ 6
6.1 Verify the FlashMAX II devices are installed and detected properly............................................ 6
6.2 Installing drivers and utilities packages ........................................................................................ 6
6.3 Starting the driver ......................................................................................................................... 7
6.4 FlashMax support.......................................................................................................................... 8
7Updating Controller Firmware .............................................................................................................. 8
8Verifying Performance ........................................................................................................................10
9Selecting Max Performance or Max Capacity Mode ..........................................................................11
10 Creating File Systems ...................................................................................................................... 12
10.1 XFS high performance options....................................................................................................12
10.2 EXT3 high performance options..................................................................................................12
10.3 Auto-Mounting Virident Device on Linux Systems ..................................................................... 13
11 Software RAID ................................................................................................................................. 13
12 Management Utilities .....................................................................................................................14
12.1 vgc-monitor................................................................................................................................. 14
12.2 vgc-secure-erase .........................................................................................................................15
12.3 vgc-config ....................................................................................................................................16
12.4 vgc-diags...................................................................................................................................... 18
12.5 vgc-beacon ..................................................................................................................................18
13 MySQL Settings ............................................................................................................................... 19
14 Troubleshooting.............................................................................................................................. 19

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide, Version 3.1.1
14.1 Cannot find block device /dev/vgca0..........................................................................................19
14.2 Thermal Shutdown......................................................................................................................21
14.3 Performance is lower than expected.......................................................................................... 21
14.4 Driver crash on system boot ....................................................................................................... 22
14.5 IOs are not being processed because the driver is hung ............................................................ 22
15 Onboard diagnostic LEDs ................................................................................................................ 23
16 Contacting Virident Support ...........................................................................................................23

Virident FlashMAX II User’s Guide - Version 3.1.1 - iii -
VIRIDENT
SOFTWARE END USER LICENCE AGREEMENT
This is a legal agreement between you, the end user,
("You") and Virident Systems Inc. (“Virident”). BY
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10. Certain Applications

Virident FlashMAX II User’s Guide - Version 3.1.1 - iv -
Virident’s Products are not designed and not warranted to
be suitable for use in military applications and/or military
environments, life support applications or other critical
applications which may involve potential risk of death,
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Software); and DFARS §252.227-7015 (NOV 1995)
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Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 1
1Introduction
The Virident FlashMAX II™line of solid state storage devices is a revolutionary product family that
utilizes the industry standard PCI Express bus interface along with vFAS, an innovative hardware and
software architecture to deliver highest sustained application performance over its life time and
enterprise-class reliability. Virident FlashMAX II enables enterprises to tackle performance-intensive
applications such as databases, business analytics, virtualization and high-performance computing
applications. This document explains how to install, configure, and manage Virident FlashMAX and
FlashMAX II devices with software version 3.1.1 on Linux based systems.
2System Requirements
For optimal performance the system hardware needs to meet the following requirements:
Model
PCI Express
Airflow
Processor
Memory
FlashMAX
Gen 1 x8 electrical
200 LFM @ 45C
inlet
Multicore Intel
Xeon® 5500 or
AMD Opteron™
1GB per TB of
flash
FlashMAX II
550GB and 1.1TB
Gen 2 x8 electrical
150 LFM @ 45C
inlet
Multicore Intel
Xeon® 5500 or
AMD Opteron™
2GB for 550GB
3GB for 1.1TB
FlashMAX II
2.2TB
Gen 2 x8 electrical
200 LFM @ 45C
inlet
Multicore Intel
Xeon® 5500 or
AMD Opteron™
6GB
Please ensure that you have ample memory for other applications to run in addition to the minimum
memory required by each installed Virident device.
3Hardware Installation
Please observe Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) precautions while installing or handling
FlashMAX II devices. ESD can damage server and/or device components.
Make sure to power down the system before installing FlashMAX II devices. Disconnect
the server from the AC power to ensure no dangerous voltages are present.

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 2
3.1 Bracket Installation
If necessary, install the appropriate bracket on the FlashMAX II device.
Please use only brackets supplied by Virident with the device. Also, do not remove the
heatsinks during the bracket replacement process as doing so could incur damage to the
device and void the warranty.
Single Board: If your single board device has nuts like the one in the picture below then, follow the single
board instructions. If your single board device does not have any nuts, please follow the double board
instructions.
To replace brackets for a single board device, please remove only the two screws closest to the bracket
(see picture below). Please slide the bracket in horizontally to line up with the screw holes. You will need
an ‘m 2.5’ screw driver and an ‘m 2.5’ nut driver. The screws need to be tightened to 4lb-in (0.45Nm).
Double Board: To replace brackets for a double board device, or a single board device without retaining
nuts, please remove only the two screws nearest the bracket (see picture below). Please slide the
bracket in horizontally to line up with the screw holes. You will need an ‘m 2.5’ screw driver. The screws
need to be tightened to 4lb-in (0.45Nm).
Please remove only these two
screws to replace brackets

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 3
3.2 PCI Slot Selection
FlashMAX II devices need to be installed in x8 or x16 PCIe Gen 2 slots. If no PCIe x8/x16 slots are
available, x4 slots can be used. However, using an x4 slot may result in up to 50% reduction in
performance.
For optimal performance and cooling on specific servers, please go to the online support
knowledge base at http://support.virident.com/supportweb/kbase.
Some systems have PCIe slots with x8 physical connectors but only provide x4 electrical
connectivity. From a performance point of view these slots behave like an x4 slot. Check
your system documentation for PCIe slot specifications.
Some systems have PCIe slots with x8 physical connectors but only provide x4 electrical
connectivity. From a performance point of view these slots behave like an x4 slot. Check
your system documentation for PCIe slot specifications.
4System BIOS Settings
After a system restart, prior to booting the operating system, enter the system BIOS setup to verify
several important settings. Note that each BIOS often has its own nomenclature for these settings, so
the exact wording of the configuration parameters may not match the examples. Not all BIOSes will
have all of these options.
Please remove only these two
screws to replace brackets.

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 4
For specific BIOS screenshots, and additional installation details please go to the online support
knowledge base at http://support.virident.com/supportweb/kbase.
4.1 Fan Speed Settings in BIOS
If your system has BIOS settings for configuring system fan speeds, select options that maximize the
airflow.
On HP systems: BIOS -> Advanced Options -> Thermal Configuration -> Increased/Maximum Cooling
On Dell systems: System Settings -> iDRAC Settings -> Thermal
Maximum Performance
Fan Speed Offset
High Fan Speed Offset
4.2 Processor Settings in BIOS
The following settings are often found under the “Advanced: Processor/Chipset Control” BIOS menus.
Disable the following optional settings:
Processor Performance States / C States / C-State Tech / EIST
C1E States / C1 Enhanced States
(Link) Active State Power Management
Enable the following on Intel™ based systems:
Hyperthreading / Logical Processors
Turbo Mode
Finally, if there are performance profiles (System Power Modes) available, set them to “Maximum
Performance.”
Intel has identified an issue in Xeon E5-2600 series processors that may result in severe
drops of PCIe and FlashMAX II bandwidth when running workloads that have low CPU
consumption. To avoid this issue, C2 and C1E processor power states must be disabled.
For details, please see Erratum BT160 in the below document:
http://www.intel.com/content/dam/www/public/us/en/documents/specification-
updates/xeon-e5-family-spec-update.pdf

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 5
5OS Settings
5.1 Ubuntu: Use “generic” kernels for highest IO performance
While both “-server” and “-generic” kernels are supported by the Virident FlashMAX II device driver, for
optimal performance, use the “-generic” version of your selected kernel version. This “generic” version
handles highly threaded IO drivers much more efficiently than the “server” version.
To see which kernel is presently installed, execute “uname -r” and check if your kernel revision ends
in “-generic” or “-server.” To install the generic version of the kernel, use the command,
“apt-get install linux-generic”.
5.2 SUSE: Enable unsupported modules to allow driver loading
While the Virident FlashMAX II device driver is fully tested under SUSE Linux, it is not certified by Novell.
By default, SUSE will not allow such modules to be loaded, so this setting must be changed to allow the
Virident device driver to load. Edit the file “/etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules" and set the value
“allow_unsupported_modules” to “1” as shown below.
Note that the device driver will be unable to load without this change.
5.3 Enhance performance by disabling CPU throttling
To obtain maximum performance, dynamic CPU frequency scaling should be disabled. This is especially
important when measuring I/O latencies. Use the following commands to disable cpuspeed daemon in
Red Hat or CentOS:
vi /etc/modprobe.d/unsupported-modules
…
# Setting allow_unsupported_modules 1 enables loading of unsupported
# by modprobe, setting allow_unsupported_modules 0 disables it. This can
# be overriden using the --allow-unsupported-modules commandline switch.
allow_unsupported_modules 1
# service cpuspeed stop
# chkconfig cpuspeed off

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 6
6Installing FlashMAX II Software
Please visit the Virident Support site to ensure that you have the compatible driver. You can download
the latest driver and other software from http://support.virident.com/ . You can request an account if
you do not already have one.
All the following installation instructions need to be executed as the root user. Log in as root or “sudo
bash” as appropriate.
6.1 Verify the FlashMAX II devices are installed and detected properly
After powering on the system for the first time with the device installed, verify that it is detected and
initialized properly by the PCI subsystem by using the “lspci” command.
You should see one device listed for every device installed. If the device is not detected, power down
the server and ensure it is seated properly. If it is still not detected, please contact Virident support for
further assistance.
6.2 Installing drivers and utilities packages
Before you can start using FlashMAX II devices you need to install two RPMs (or corresponding DEB
packages in Ubuntu/Debian):
1) Drivers RPM:
kmod-vgc-drivers-<distribution or kernel version>-<driver version>-
<driver build>.x86_64.rpm
2) Utilities RPM:
vgc-utils-<distribution name and version>-<driver version>-<driver
build>.x86_64.rpm
These driver and utilities packages are available on the Virident Support site. You will need to select your
distribution version. If you are using Oracle Enterprise Linux, Ubuntu, Debian, OpenSUSE, or Fedora Core
you will need to select your kernel version. You can confirm your running kernel version with the
“uname -a” command.
Install the RPMs using the standard RPM or DPKG commands.
# lspci -d 1a78:
03:00.0 FLASH memory: Virident Systems Inc. FlashMAX Drive V2 (rev 01)
(rev 01)

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 7
Red Hat, CentOS
Ubuntu, Deb
SLES, SUSE
6.3 Starting the driver
After installing the drivers and utilities packages, the driver will load automatically on every system boot.
To start the driver without rebooting the system, enter the following command:
After the driver starts successfully, you should be able to use the devices.
You can list available devices and block devices (physical partitions) using vgc-monitor command:
# rpm -ivh kmod-vgc-drivers-redhat6.0-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh vgc-utils-redhat6-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh kmod-vgc-redhat6.1+-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
# rpm -ivh vgc-utils-redhat6-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
$ vgc-3.5.0-22-generic_3.1.1-51287.C6_amd64.deb
$ vgc-utils-ubuntu1210 _3.1.1-51287.C6_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i vgc-2.6.32-5-openvz-amd64_3.1.1-51287.C6_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i vgc-utils-debian6_3.1.1-51287.C6_amd64.deb
$ sudo dpkg -i vgc-sles11sp2-kmp-default-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo dpkg -i vgc-utils-sles11sp2-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo dpkg -i vgc-3.4.6-2.10-desktop-kmp-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
$ sudo dpkg -i vgc-utils-opensuse12p2-3.1.1-51287.C6.x86_64.rpm
# service vgcd start
Loading kernel modules... [ OK ]
Rescanning SW RAID volumes... [ OK ]
Rescanning LVM volumes... [ OK ]
Enabling swap devices... [ OK ]
Rescanning mount points... [ OK ]

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 8
Confirm that the status of all devices listed by vgc-monitor is showing status value of Good.
You can list available block devices (physical partitions) using the ls command:
When erasing or upgrading the RPMs, the configuration file /etc/sysconfig/vgcd.conf
from the existing installation is renamed and saved as /etc/sysconfig/vgcd.conf.rpmsave.
This way the administrator made changes and settings are preserved through an upgrade
or uninstall. After an upgrade or a new installation, the administrator is required to
reconcile the new file (installed with the new RPM) and the old file (the saved .rpmsave
version from the previously installed version).
6.4 Legacy FlashMax support
The 3.1.1 driver also supports 300, 400, 800 GB SLC and 1100, 1400 GB MLC FlashMax devices.
# vgc-monitor
vgc-monitor: 3.1.1(51287.C6)
Driver Uptime: 0:35
Card_Name Num_Partitions Card_Type Status
/dev/vgca 2VIR-M2-LP-2200-2A Good
Partition Usable_Capacity RAID
/dev/vgca0 923 GB enabled
/dev/vgca1923 GB enabled
# ls -l /dev/vgc??
brw-rw---- 1 oracle dba 252, 16 Jan 30 11:35 /dev/vgca1

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 9
7Updating Controller Firmware
You do not need to update firmware if the driver loads successfully with no errors.
If a mismatch between the firmware and driver version is detected during the driver load, the “Loading
kernel modules…” step will show a FAILED status and a corresponding message will be added to system
log (/var/log/messages). Also vgc-monitor utility will show such devices as “unclaimed”:
If a FlashMAX II device has an older firmware version that is not supported by the latest driver version,
you need to update the firmware before you can use the device.
To update firmware, perform the following steps:
1) Install the driver and utilities packages of the version corresponding to the new firmware
version
2) Stop the FlashMAX II drivers
# service vgcd stop
3) Download and untar vgc-firmware package corresponding to the installed driver version
4) Run the update script from the directory where you extracted contents of vgc-firmware
package.
a. To update firmware on all installed FlashMAX II devices, run:
# ./vgc-update.sh
b. To update firmware on one device only, run the following command (replace X with
a,b,..):
# ./vgc-update.sh --drive /dev/vgcX
# vgc-monitor
vgc-monitor: 3.1.1(51287.C6)
Driver Uptime: 0:11
/dev/vgca: Could not get information about FlashMAX drive /dev/vgca: No
such device (rc=19)
Unclaimed Drives:
0000:85:00.0 FLASH memory: Virident Systems Inc. FlashMAX Drive (rev
01) (0x1a78:0x0040, 0x1a78:0x0040)

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 10
c. To update firmware on all installed FlashMAX II devices without user confirmation, run:
# ./vgc-update.sh --auto
5) Power cycle the system (this is mandatory as rebooting is not sufficient)
After the firmware update script starts, do not interrupt it and do not power down the
system until the update completes. Please backup your data before firmware upgrade.
FlashMAX II has been designed from ground-up to deliver highest enterprise class
reliability with built-in RAID and end to end data protection. However, when used in DAS
use case, Virident recommends the use of application level replication or backup
strategies to ensure high data availability.
8Verifying Performance
Before setting up a file system on the Virident FlashMAX II device, it is useful to measure the raw
performance of each device to ensure proper setup. This makes it easier to isolate and resolve any
potential problems.
From the same page where you download drivers and utilities, you can download a simple performance
testing script “test.sh”that uses the GPL licensed FIO utility. Copy the required files “test.sh” and “fio”
to the current directory and run it as shown below:
# test.sh /dev/vgc<X>0
Please be aware that the test script will destroy all existing data on the device.
If it is your first time setting up FlashMAX II devices, we recommend that you send output of test.sh
script to Virident support at [email protected]m . Virident support engineers will verify that the
device is functioning as expected.

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 11
9Selecting Max Performance or Max Capacity Mode
By default FlashMAX II devices are formatted in Max Capacity mode (for SLC FlashMAX V1 the default is
Max Performance mode). If your application is write intensive, setting Max Performance mode instead
of the default Max Capacity mode can be beneficial. Max Performance mode provides twice the
sustained random write performance of Max Capacity mode while reducing available user capacity of
the device by 15%. Read performance and sequential write performance are same in Max Performance
and Max Capacity modes. Only workloads that generate significant amount of random write I/O will
benefit from using Max Performance mode.
Use the following command to check current configuration of all FlashMAX II devices:
Command for formatting /dev/vgca0 in Max Performance mode:
Command for formatting /dev/vgca0 in Max Capacity mode:
# vgc-config
vgc-config: 3.1.1(51287.C6)
Current Configuration:
/dev/vgca 2 partition(s)
/dev/vgca0 mode=maxcapacity sector-size=512 raid=enabled
/dev/vgca1mode=maxcapacity sector-size=512 raid=enabled
#vgc-config -m maxperformance -p /dev/vgca0
vgc-config: 3.1.1(51287.C6)
*** WARNING: this operation will erase ALL data on this drive, type <yes> to
continue: yes
*** Formatting drive. Please wait... ***
#vgc-config -m maxcapacity -p /dev/vgca0
vgc-config: 3.1.1 (51287.C6)
*** WARNING: this operation will erase ALL data on this drive, type <yes> to
continue: yes
*** Formatting drive. Please wait... *** [/-/]

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 12
Changing the performance mode using vgc-config will erase existing data.
10 Creating File Systems
Any standard Linux file system may be placed on the Virident FlashMAX II device simply by using its
standard mkfs utility.
If you need only one partition per device, Virident recommends creating file system directly on a
/dev/vgca0, /dev/vgcb0,… block device. In such case creating a software partition using fdisk/gparted is
not needed and therefore not recommended.
fdisk does not work on devices larger than 2TB, so “parted” must be used instead.
10.1XFS high performance options
Performance of many applications can be improved if individual files are aligned on 4KB boundaries. XFS
allows setting “sector” size equal to 4KB, which guarantees the necessary alignment for all files.
Virident recommends the following standard mkfs command line for XFS to enable the highest
performance:
Note that some applications (e.g. Sybase) that use direct I/O of <4KB size may be incompatible with the
“-s size=4096” option. Such applications would report I/O errors. If you see such problem, do not use the
“-s size=4096” option.
10.2EXT3 high performance options
At high write workloads, EXT3 can bottleneck on writes to its journal, especially on devices as high in
performance as the Virident FlashMAX II device. To help eliminate this bottleneck, Virident
recommends that additional space be set aside for the EXT3 journal using the following option
Another alternative, applicable in cases where the EXT3 journaling is not needed at all e.g. scratch-areas,
is to simply use EXT2 which does not have journaling.
# mkfs.xfs -s size=4096 /dev/vgca0
# mkfs.ext3 -J size=400 <other standard options as required> /dev/vgca0

Virident FlashMAX II User Guide - Version 3.1.1 13
10.3Auto-Mounting Virident Device on Linux Systems
If automount of the Virident FlashMAX II device is desired at system startup, the following steps are
required:
Step 1: In /etc/fstab add entries with ‘noauto’keyword with 0,0 options for the FlashMAX II device, to
ensure that auto-mount is not attempted before FlashMAX II drivers are loaded during boot-up process.
Step 2: Modify /etc/sysconfig/vgcd.conf and assign space separated list of FlashMAX II devices to a
variable MOUNT_POINTS. During driver load, all devices specified with MOUNT_POINT variable and
corresponding /etc/fstab entries will be considered for auto-mount.
11 Software RAID
It is possible to use software RAID for striping or mirroring multiple FlashMAX II devices.
Note that FlashMAX II devices have embedded flash-aware RAID with 7+1P redundancy that provides
protection against bad blocks and flash component failures. This reduces the need for mirroring
FlashMAX II devices in some usage scenarios.
The default software RAID creation parameters are sufficient for good read and write performance.
Below is an example of creating a striped volume across two FlashMAX II devices:
/dev/vgca0 /mnt1 ext3 noauto,defaults 0 0
/dev/vgcb0 /mnt2 xfs noauto,defaults 0 0
# The list of mount points that the script should mount
MOUNT_POINTS="/mnt1 /mnt2"
#mdadm --create /dev/md0 --level=0 --raid-devices=2 /dev/vgca0 /dev/vgcb0

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12 Management Utilities
12.1vgc-monitor
The vgc-monitor utility allows monitoring of FlashMAX II device status and health. When called without
parameters, it lists all Virident FlashMAX II devices in the system with their configuration and health
summary.
Command syntax:
vgc-monitor [ -d <drive-name> | -h ]
no args : display info for all Virident drives
-d : drive name /dev/vgc[a-h]. Display info for the given drive.
-h : display this help and exit
Example. Detailed output for /dev/vgca drive:
# vgc-monitor -d /dev/vgca
vgc-monitor: 3.1.1(51287.C6)
Driver Uptime: 0:46
Card_Name Num_Partitions Card_Type Status
/dev/vgca 2VIR-M2-LP-2200-2A Good
Serial Number : SJ896425
Card Info : Part: 35000-00005-B1
Rev : FlashMax II 47955, module 47956, x8 Gen2
Temperature : 46 C (Safe)
Card State Details : Normal
Action Required : None
Partition Usable_Capacity RAID
/dev/vgca0 932 GB enabled
Mode : maxcapacity
Total Flash Bytes : 464346216964608 (464.35TB) (reads)
222557510711912 (222.56TB) (writes)
Remaining Life : 98.16%
Partition State : READY
Flash Reserves Left : 99.95%

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12.2 vgc-secure-erase
The ‘secure erase’ feature ensures all user data is removed from flash media. The usage model is that if
a device needs to be returned to the factory for repair/replacement, or is being leveraged for a new
project by the customer, all potentially sensitive data needs to be securely removed prior to leaving the
facility or redeployment for another project.
The standards call this process ‘sanitization’. The sanitization standards are different depending upon
what type of media is being used. For example, the standards for magnetic disk media are different than
what is required for flash memory.
Virident has a Secure Erase Utility that will perform this function for customers who need to securely
erase data from a device.
Data Sanitization Standards
There are different levels of Sanitization specified in the standards: Clear and Purge. In most cases, the
Clear level of Sanitization will suffice for most use cases, but in some cases Purge will be required. Both
types of sanitization are supported by the Virident Secure Erase Utility.
The Virident Secure Erase Utility complies with the Clear and Purge levels of Sanitization in accordance
with the following Government standards:
DOD 5220.22-M –Complies with sanitization requirements for Flash EPROM
(http://www.dss.mil/documents/pressroom/isl_2007_01_oct_11_2007_final_agreement.pdf )
NIST SP800-88 –Complies with instructions for Flash EPROM
(http://csrc.nist.gov/publications/nistpubs/800-88/NISTSP800-88_with-errata.pdf)
The specifications state the following requirements for the two levels of Sanitization:
Clear (directly quoting from NIST and DOD publication): Perform a full chip purge as per
manufacturer’s data sheets
Purge (directly quoting from NIST and DOD publication): Overwrite all addressable locations
with a single character, followed by performing a full chip erase as per manufacturer’s data
sheets.
Operation
The device needs to be in a minimally operative state in order to use the Secure Erase Utility. The Secure
Erase Utility will attempt to erase all user data from the device according to which ever method is
chosen by the user (Clear or Purge). If it is not successful due to the fact that some blocks that contain
user data are no longer accessible due to media failure, error messages will be produced. There are
some cases where a block is not usable from the start and is marked bad when the device is shipped