PE1800 Onboard LSI Logic SCSI controller fails tape drive

Question

Environment:

PE 1800 with
- CERC controller & 2 x 80GB disks
- Sony SDX-250 Tape drive connected to Onboard LSI SCSI controller, latest Sony Tape device drivers
- Win 2003 Server SP1

When I start the system, the LSI Bios hangs for 15 secs before it recognsies the device (why??), but then proceeds with the booting.

Once the operating system starts, I get these errors in the System event log:

Source: symmpi, Event ID: 117
The driver for device \Device\Scsi\symmpi1 detected a port timeout due to prolonged inactivity. All associated busses were reset in an effort to clear the condition.

then 15 minutes later:

Source: symmpi, Event ID: 9
The device, \Device\Scsi\symmpi1, did not respond within the timeout period.

When I try to go to the Removable Storage Applet in MMC, it simply hangs with an hourglass. The RSM service is hung in either starting or stopping state.

The system also lists this in the log:
Source: symmpi, Event ID: 168
RSM cannot manage library Tape0. Failed to communicate with device or obtain device setup information.

The tape drive has been working perfectly fine on the old server with an Adaptec 2940U2W controller.

I suspect the problem to be with the LSI device drivers or their BIOS as it stalls the boot process.

The LSI device drivers used are the MS supplied ones, version 1.10.05. I can't find these drivers on the section for the PE1800 on the Dell website.

Has anyone got some suggestions how to fix this problem?

Thanks in advance!

pcmeiners · Answer

Really don't know, but did you get cables/ terminator compatible with the higher speed scsi bus. If it is a matter of scsi setting on the card, http://seer.support.veritas.com/docs/191158.htm

felixb · Answer

Hmm, some good points raised in the Veritas article:

Check configuration on the SCSI controller

Set the tape drive SCSI ID as low as possible, avoiding 0 or 1, which are usually reserved for bootable devices
Set INITIATE WIDE NEGOTIATION to off for controllers with a wide bus
Set INITIATE SYNC NEGOTIATION for the ID of the tape drive to off
Set MAXIMUM SYNC TRANSFER RATE to the slowest possible setting
DISCONNECT must be enabled for all tape drive SCSI IDs
Set SCSI PARITY CHECKING to off

How do I set these parameters. The MS driver certainly has no options to set them. May have to re-boot the system (off hours) and se if the SCSI BIOS has some settings.

I think the LSI controller interface is Ultra320 whereas the tape device is 160 or even 80, hence there might be some translation occuring. I am not a SCSI expert (they always worked for me in the past), so I am a bit stumped.

pcmeiners · Answer

These settings would be in the SCSI card bios, reboot is necessary to get to them. Lower the scsi speed down to the tape speed. Also follow the settings Veritas recommends slowly, but try the speed change first, Veritas recommendation are very conservative, not all the settings need to be as low as they recommend.

felixb · Answer

I resolved this issue over the w/e by adding an Adaptec 29160 SCSI card and connecting the tape drive to that card. I also added a different tape drive to the onboard LSI adapter. Turns out that the problem was still evident on the Adaptec card and the LSI card was working fine.

I then swapped cables and the behaviour went back to the LSI adapter with the other tape drive! This clearly isolated the problem to the cable.

The cable didn't show any evidence of physical damage, but something must have been suspicous, as the replacement cable I now use has the tape drive working fine.

For the record:
The LSI SCSI BIOS does only permit to change the speed, no other parameters can be set!

Thanks for your help.

PowerEdge HDD/SCSI/RAID

PE1800 Onboard LSI Logic SCSI controller fails tape drive

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