You did not mentioned to us how r u planning to install your PV650F, i.e. to a single machine or to be a sharable to more than one or be a cluster storage?
Any how, PV650F is a fiber storage, so you have to connect it through a fiber interface card (QL2200 for example) and from DELL web site you can download all software that necessary to configure and administrate it (QLogig driver and UTL, DATA supervisor or DATA Administrator, ATF,...etc).

Message Edited by rihas_1996 on 01-19-2004 10:51 AM

Oh, sorry.... I have the unit attached to a single machine through a QLA2000 fibre card and a copper fibre cable. From what I've read, the new drives need to be formatted with a 520 byte sector..? How would I go about doing this? I've also read of Flare, which I do not have but may be obtaining a single drive with Flare on it...someone else on this board mentioned using a Flared drive to copy flare to all other disks in the array. Is there anything special I need to do first? I'll most likely be using a lot of 10 fibre drives from a reseller, probably set up for 'normal' use. Anyone have any clues as to what I need to do?

Thank you for any help!

~K9124

Flare is the  O/S for your 650 - and MUST match the level of PROM code that has been programmed into your storage processor cards.   Not only must your drives be formatted at 520 Bytes/sector, they must also have code levels that are recognized by the Flare code as qualified for use.

I hope you did not pay too much for your new boat anchor.

Heh, thankfully the DPER was free.  Military surplus sitting in a closet, I simply staked my claim to it.  I ordered an 18GB drive for it from ebay, (can't complain for $25 after ship) and attached my HBA to an LCC for JBOD usage until I could get flare.  After formatting the (empty) drive (which is EMC OEM, was default 520 byte sector) it was accessable for awhile, but now the drive shows at boottime (if you turn the unit on at the right time) but disappears before (or slightly after) entering Windows.  Any ideas?  The notion that it worked for a small time and then kinda half-quit really gets to me.   Thanks for any help!

~Dave

ps. Also, I have a copy of a PROM file for the unit, might this have the flare code in it?  I read somewhere that it "copies itself to the Database disks upon upgrade of the PROM."  The file is named Flare.5.11.08.prom.3.21.bin . 

Message Edited by Kaoru9124 on 02-11-2004 08:53 PM

Sounds like you now have a "proper" drive (EMC OEM), however I suspect your drive firmware level starts with DAxx, and that level of code (if from Dell) requires DExx.    If you are attaching an HBA to the Fibre Channel connector on the PV650 LCC, you are going IN an OUT (or expansion) port.  The primary port is internal to the 650 motherboard.   As such, you may get strange issues, like not being able to see odd numbered drives.  Also the backend port is running FCAL (arbitrated loop) protocol, where your HBA may be trying to run fabric protocol. Check the BIOS settings for your HBA.

Having the file is good (your Flare and PROM are at compatible levels, in one file).  Again we have a chicken and egg problem.  You need to have Flare and PROM resident on your boot disk to enable downloading of new Flare/PROM.  You cannot start with a blank disk.   Uplevel PROM code will copy from the boot disk to flash the PROM on the SP card.  Not the other way around.

This information helps a lot though, considering tracking info down on these units is nothing less than a nightmare! So, do you know of any conceiveable way to use this unit at least as a JBOD, or will I be absolutely required to get some flared drives? If so, do you know where I might be able to a) get a flared drive, b) find out how to flare my drive manually, or c) get my drive flared for a decent price? Of course I do not have a warranty on the unit, so that's out. Thanks for your response!