SupremeRAID™ Hybrid Linux Driver 2.0.1 Release Notes, Software, and Documentation
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid Linux Driver 2.0.1 Release Notes, Software, and Documentation
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid Linux Driver 2.0.1 Release Notes, Software, and Documentation
Date:9/3/26
Important Notes
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid is a special release of SupremeRAID™ Linux 2.0.1. It is not a separate product line such as SupremeRAID™ SE or SupremeRAID™ AE.
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid uses the same SupremeRAID™ license key as standard SupremeRAID™. This release supports only NVIDIA RTX A400, RTX A1000, RTX 2000 Ada, and RTX PRO 2000 GPU cards.
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid is supported for new installations only. In-place upgrade, conversion from an existing SupremeRAID™ installation, and downgrade are not supported.
This release is distributed with the dedicated graid-sr-hybrid-preinstaller and graid-sr-hybrid-installer executables. The installation workflow is similar to a regular SupremeRAID™ release, but the standard SupremeRAID™ pre-installer and installer must not be substituted. The Hybrid pre-installer does not use a product-line option such as -pl or --productline. Download links and MD5 checksums are provided below.
SupremeRAID™ is designed to deliver high-performance RAID for NVMe SSDs. SupremeRAID™ Hybrid extends the SupremeRAID™ Linux 2.0.1 management model to systems that also require high-capacity hard disk drive (HDD) storage.
In this special release, Linux Multiple Device (MD) RAID provides the HDD capacity and data-protection tier. A SupremeRAID™ virtual drive built from NVMe SSDs provides the cache tier. Linux bcache combines both tiers and exposes an accelerated block device, such as /dev/bcache0, to the operating system and applications.
bcache and cache terminology
This document uses bcache for the Linux technology and the managed accelerated volume. It uses cache for the SupremeRAID™ NVMe cache tier or device, cache attributes such as mode and state, and the literal graidctl ... cache command syntax.
Linux MD performs the HDD RAID I/O. The HDDs do not become native SupremeRAID™ physical drives. graidctl provides the supported management workflow for the MD and bcache resources added by this release.
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid adds graidctl lifecycle management for HDD-backed Linux MD resources:
Register supported whole, unpartitioned HDD devices as MD physical drives. Registration rejects an HDD if any partition exists and instructs the user to remove the partitions manually.
List and describe MD physical drives.
Create MD RAID0, RAID1, RAID5, RAID6, and RAID10 drive groups.
Automatically expose each MD drive group as one MD virtual drive, VD0.
Report MD drive-group health, member states, and synchronization or recovery progress.
Delete a general MD drive group created through graidctl, including stopping the native array and wiping its MD member superblocks.
Remove an imported MD array from Graid management without stopping or modifying the native Linux MD array.
Unregister an MD physical drive after it is no longer referenced by a managed MD drive group.
Supported MD RAID member requirements:
RAID mode
Member requirement
RAID0
At least 2 drives
RAID1
Exactly 2 drives
RAID5
At least 3 drives; applicable licensed capability required
RAID6
At least 4 drives; applicable licensed capability required
RAID10
At least 4 drives and an even member count
The release supports up to 24 members per MD drive group, 96 registered MD physical drives, and 8 managed MD drive groups per host.
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid adds graidctl management for Linux bcache volumes:
Use a SupremeRAID™ NVMe virtual drive as the cache device for the bcache volume.
Use MD VD0 as the HDD backing device.
Create a bcache volume in writeback, writethrough, writearound, or none mode.
Use the default cache configuration of writeback mode, 10% writeback percentage, 4 KiB block size, and 2 MiB bucket size when no options are specified.
List the component DG/VD IDs, capacity, /dev/bcacheN path, cache mode, cache state, dirty-data size, writeback percentage, and overall state.
Change the cache mode or set the writeback percentage from 0% through 40% after creation.
Start an asynchronous maximum-rate drain, which sets the writeback percentage to 0% and returns immediately while dirty data drains in the background.
Detach the current SupremeRAID™ NVMe cache VD and attach an eligible SupremeRAID™ NVMe VD to the bcache volume.
Delete a clean managed bcache volume and remove its bcache relationship and signatures. Deletion is rejected while dirty data remains.
Remove stale bcache signatures during creation with the explicit --confirm-wipe option.
The MD backing VD and SupremeRAID™ NVMe cache VD must use matching block sizes. The bcache block size is fixed at 4 KiB, and the bucket size is fixed at 2 MiB.
Same license key as the corresponding standard SupremeRAID™ 2.0.1 configuration
SupremeRAID™ GPU card
NVIDIA RTX A400, RTX A1000, RTX 2000 Ada, or RTX PRO 2000 only
SupremeRAID™ controller and server platforms
Same as the standard SupremeRAID™ 2.0.1 platform compatibility matrix, limited to configurations using NVIDIA RTX A400, RTX A1000, RTX 2000 Ada, or RTX PRO 2000
Management Console support
MD and bcache operations are not supported in the GUI; use graidctl
For a new installation, download graid-sr-hybrid-installer. Its interactive installation workflow is similar to a regular SupremeRAID™ release, but the installer itself is specific to SupremeRAID™ Hybrid. The special release uses the standard SupremeRAID™ license key.
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid 2.0.1 must be deployed as a new installation. In-place upgrade, conversion from an existing SupremeRAID™ installation, and downgrade are not supported.
Conversion from standard SupremeRAID™ 2.0.1 to SupremeRAID™ Hybrid 2.0.1
Not supported
Downgrade or rollback
Not supported
Prepare the host as a new SupremeRAID™ deployment and follow the SupremeRAID™ Hybrid installation procedure. Existing SupremeRAID™ systems must not be converted to this special release in place.
Creating an MD drive group writes MD metadata to its HDDs. Creating a bcache volume writes metadata to both component VDs. Deleting a managed MD drive group stops the array, wipes member superblocks, and destroys the array's data. Verify every device path and resource ID and maintain a tested backup.
MD physical-drive registration rejects any HDD that contains one or more partitions. Back up required data and manually remove all partitions from the intended HDD before registering it.
Applications and file systems must use /dev/bcacheN, not either component virtual drive.
Stop application I/O and unmount /dev/bcacheN before deleting a bcache volume or its component resources.
Before deleting or detaching a cache device, run sudo sync, use graidctl edit cache [CACHE_ID] max_drain, and monitor DIRTY DATA with graidctl list cache until it reaches 0 B.
Delete resources in this order: bcache volume, MD drive group, unused MD physical drives, and then unused SR VD, DG, and PD resources.
remove drive_group ... -t MD is inventory-only and is reserved for imported MD arrays that must remain intact.
delete drive_group ... -t MD is destructive and is reserved for general MD arrays created through graidctl.
Do not modify the membership, UUID, metadata, or state of a managed MD array directly with mdadm.
Do not power off the host while an MD array is synchronizing or recovering or while a bcache volume reports dirty data.
Linux is the only supported operating system for this release.
MD and bcache operations are available only through graidctl; they are not available in SupremeRAID™ Management Console.
MD physical-drive replacement is not available through graidctl.
Each MD drive group exposes exactly one automatic VD0. Independent create, edit, or delete operations for MD VDs are not supported.
Destructive managed MD deletion applies to general MD arrays created through this release. Imported MD arrays use inventory-only removal.
SR-specific drive-group options such as controller selection, journal selection, foreground or background initialization, and strip-size selection do not apply to MD drive groups.
graidctl edit cache ... writebackpct accepts values from 0 through 40.
graidctl edit cache ... max_drain starts an asynchronous drain and returns immediately; use graidctl list cache to monitor DIRTY DATA until it reaches 0 B.
Deleting a bcache volume is rejected while dirty data remains.
The MD backing VD block size must match the SupremeRAID™ NVMe cache VD block size.
The bcache block size and bucket size are fixed at 4 KiB and 2 MiB.
A single SR VD or MD VD must not be reused in multiple bcache volumes.
delete cache accepts one cache ID at a time.
If deleting a bcache volume fails or /dev/bcacheN remains, keep both component VDs intact and stop I/O. Do not format, delete, or reuse either component before the failure is resolved.
SupremeRAID™ Hybrid Linux Driver 2.0.1 Release Notes, Software, and Documentation