VMS 6.1 vs. Seagate Disk Drives
Jerry Leslie
model 90A, running OpenVMS VAX V6.1
The drives are known to be good, and were just moved over from a VAX 3600
running OpenVMS VAX 5.5-2, which has a CMD Technology QBUS-to-SCSI bus
adaptor.
Attempts to mount the Seagate drives result in
%MOUNT-F-DRVERR, fatal drive error
Before their installation on the VAX 3600, these drives were previously used
on our ALPHA, DEC 3000 model 500, running OpenVMS AXP V1.5.
Is there a CSC patch yet for this problem ?
--Gerald (Jerry) R. Leslie
Staff Engineer
Dynamic Matrix Control Corporation
P.O. Box 721648 9896 Bissonnet
Houston, Texas 77272 Houston, Texas, 77036
713/272-5065 713/272-5200 (fax)
gle...@isvsrv.enet.dec.com
jle...@dmccorp.com
Vance R. Haemmerle
Jerry Leslie <jle...@dmccorp.com> wrote:
>We just tried mounting Seagate ST11200N disk drives on a new VAXStation 4000
>model 90A, running OpenVMS VAX V6.1
>
>The drives are known to be good, and were just moved over from a VAX 3600
>running OpenVMS VAX 5.5-2, which has a CMD Technology QBUS-to-SCSI bus
>adaptor.
>
>Attempts to mount the Seagate drives result in
>
> %MOUNT-F-DRVERR, fatal drive error
>
>Before their installation on the VAX 3600, these drives were previously used
>on our ALPHA, DEC 3000 model 500, running OpenVMS AXP V1.5.
>
>Is there a CSC patch yet for this problem ?
Yes, CSCPAT_1148 V1.0 (VAXDRIV03_061)
--
Vance Haemmerle
va...@alumni.caltech.edu
Jerry Leslie
: In article <3266h0$8...@uuneo.neosoft.com>,
: Jerry Leslie <jle...@dmccorp.com> wrote:
[ original article deleted ]
: >Is there a CSC patch yet for this problem ?
: Yes, CSCPAT_1148 V1.0 (VAXDRIV03_061)
: --
: Vance Haemmerle
: va...@alumni.caltech.edu
Thanks, Vance.
Is there a patch for OpenVMS AXP V6.1 as well ?
BTW, has DEC made the patches available via the Internet to DSNLink users
yet, as announced earlier ?
--Gerald (Jerry) R. Leslie
Staff Engineer
Dynamic Matrix Control Corporation (my opinions are my own)
Per Steinar Iversen
If one tries to install VMS 6.1 from scratch, from CD to disk, then the
standalone backup on the CD will not restore VMS061.B to a Seagate disk.
If an older standalone backup is used for this, then the saveset can be
restored, but the result can not be booted as the disk is then claimed
to be offline by the new VMS 6.1 version installed on that disk!
If we install VMS 6.1 onto a DEC disk and then install this patch - will
the result be bootable if copied to a Seagate disk?
Our system runs on a VAXstation 4000/60.
-psi (PerSteina...@fi.uib.no)
Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Systems
You know, lots of folks are screaming about this problem, but I think it says
something that DEC got a patch kit out to fix it. It wasn't too long ago that
DEC would have said "tough, it's not one of our drives, so we never said it
would always work". Heck, there are some vendors of Unix-like systems that
have said that in the past... and who never got fixes out.
Some things at DEC *are* getting better.
--- Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Systems, San Diego CA
drivers, internals, networks, applications, and training for VMS and Windows NT
uucp protocol weenie and release coordinator, VMSnet (DECUS uucp) Working Group
Chair, Programming and Internals Working Group, U.S. DECUS VMS Systems SIG
Internet: j...@cmkrnl.com (JH645) Uucp: uunet!cmkrnl!jeh CompuServe: 74140,2055
Malcolm Dunnett
j...@cmkrnl.com (Jamie Hanrahan, Kernel Mode Systems) writes:
>
> You know, lots of folks are screaming about this problem, but I think it says
> something that DEC got a patch kit out to fix it. It wasn't too long ago that
> DEC would have said "tough, it's not one of our drives, so we never said it
> would always work". Heck, there are some vendors of Unix-like systems that
> have said that in the past... and who never got fixes out.
>
> Some things at DEC *are* getting better.
>
Yes, they are. But the real test will be how fast they incorporate this
patch into the base kit, so that people with nothing but a Seagate disk on
their system can install VMS V6.1 ( the patch doesn't help them, because
the "bad" driver will get installed during the update, rendering their system
unusable )
--
=============================================================================
Malcolm Dunnett Malaspina University-College Email: dun...@mala.bc.ca
Computer Services Nanaimo, B.C. CANADA V9R 5S5 Tel: (604)755-8738
Jerry Leslie
We wonder why DEC 'broke' this feature, since the drives worked fine under
OpenVMS VAX V5.5-2 ? Especially since RZ28B have "Seagate ST12400N".
But it is nice that DEC is working to support 3rd party SCSI drives. I
saw an article about someone who'd installed an IBM oem SCSI drive on
an ALPHA, and the DEC response was that the engineering folks would
endeavor to support that drive in a future release, and would a patch be
required.
It'll really be interesting if DEC does sell its disk drive and DLT tape
operations to Quantum.
--Gerald (Jerry) R. Leslie
Staff Engineer
Dynamic Matrix Control Corporation (my opinions are my own)
Ralph O. Weber -- OpenVMS AXP
Jamie,
Thanks for all the good words.
FYI VMS is working on a version of SCSI disk support that will be more
dynamically tolerant of changes in mode page behavior (which is the problem
here). The new mode page support will ship in the next major release of
OpenVMS for AXP systems.
(We are also looking at making similar changes for OpenVMS on VAX systems.
However, the new code is written in C and VAX drivers can't be written in C.
So, there is a small pile of MACRO-32 rewrite involved.)
The new mode page support will tolerate any unexpected mode page behavior
except things that affect the mode page bits that VMS must care about. What
are the mode page bit that VMS cares about, you might ask. Well, as of the
last time I looked, they are shown in the following table.
SCSI Mode Page Requirements
===========================
AWRE ARRE TB RC PER DTE QERR EECA WCE
==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ==== ====
AXP/SCSI2-project:
SCSI2/TCQ/Clust 1/R 1/R 1/R 0/R 1/R 1/P 0/R 0/R 0/P
SCSI2/NoTCQ 0/P 0/P 1/R 0/R 1/R 1/P N/A N/A 0/R
SCSI1 0/R 0/R 1/R 0/R 1/R 1/P N/A N/A 0/R
Non512-blksize D/C D/C 1/R 0/R 1/R 1/P N/A N/A 0/R
R = Required, fatal error if not set to desired state.
P = Preferred, special success if not set to desired state.
D/C = Don't care, leave it untouched.
N/A = Not applicable in this category.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bit definitions (from SCSI-2 spec):
R/W Error Recovery Page:
AWRE An automatic write allocation enabled bit of one indicates that the
target shall enable automatic reallocation to be performed during
write operations.
ARRE An automatic read allocation enabled bit of one indicates that the
target shall enable automatic reallocation of defective data blocks
during read operations.
TB A tansfer block bit of one indicates that a data block that is not
recovered within the recovery limits shall be transferred to the
initiator before the CHECK CONDITION status is returned.
RC A read continuous bit of one indicates that the target shall transfer
the entire requested length of data without adding delays to perform
the error recovery procedures.
PER A post error bit of one indicates that the target shall report
recovered errors.
DTE A DTE bit of one indicates that the target shall terminate the data
phase upon detection of a recovered error.
Control Mode Page (TCQ only):
QERR A queue error management bit of zero specifies that those commands
still queued after the target has entered the contingent allegiance or
extended contingent allegiance conditions shall continue execution in
a normal manner when that condition has terminated.
EECA An enabled extended allegiance bit of one specifies that extended
contingent allegiance is enabled.
Caching Page:
WCE A write cache enable bit of zero indicates that the target shall
return GOOD status for a WRITE command after successfully writing all
of the data to the medium.
Jim Laferriere
: Yes, they are. But the real test will be how fast they incorporate this
: patch into the base kit, so that people with nothing but a Seagate disk on
: their system can install VMS V6.1 ( the patch doesn't help them, because
: the "bad" driver will get installed during the update, rendering their system
: unusable )
But, UNLESS you are on MDDS (or some such) you can only re-purchase the
distro- or you must be on some form of maintenance then you can get the
patches.(which can be used, unless you have only a seagate drive)
So someone without the Maint. or the $$$ to buy a Distro- the
patch(s,ed) versions of VMS. Are basically unattainable.
Now my question, how does someone who purchased a one time license &
media get His/Her hands on the necessary patches/distro- to get online?
ThranxIA, Jim
Malcolm Dunnett
bab...@connected.com (Jim Laferriere) writes:
>
> But, UNLESS you are on MDDS (or some such) you can only re-purchase the
> distro- or you must be on some form of maintenance then you can get the
> patches.(which can be used, unless you have only a seagate drive)
>
> So someone without the Maint. or the $$$ to buy a Distro- the
> patch(s,ed) versions of VMS. Are basically unattainable.
>
> Now my question, how does someone who purchased a one time license &
> media get His/Her hands on the necessary patches/distro- to get online?
>
Firstly, I suspect Digital will never incorporate this patch into a VMS 6.1
distribution kit, they generally don't reissue a particular version to
incorporate patches. I think in a case like this they really should, but past
history suggests they won't. It may be fixed in a (hypothetical) release of
VMS 6.1-1. It's also possible that the bug will reappear in future "minor"
releases of VMS, and you will need to reapply the patch kit after each update.
A posting from someone in VMS engineering suggested this problem would be
fixed properly in the "next major release of AXP VMS", no commitment for the
VAX version.
If your system disk is not affected then all you need to do is get the patch
kit and install it. You could try complaining to your local Digital office,
there's a good chance they'll loan you the kit or give you permission to get
it from someone else.
If all your disks are affected then you'll probably need to get a distribution
which incorporates the patch ( or you'll need to get the patch kit and "fix"
the VMS distribution saveset manually )
If Digital should issue a "point release" of VMS 6.1 which has the patch
incorporated then you could again try to get permission to "borrow" a copy,
or you could buy the updated dist kit. All you would need is the CD with
VMS on it, no docs or LP disks, so the cost should only be a couple of hundred
dollars.