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Proliant ML350 G4

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Bob Parkhurst

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Aug 30, 2005, 11:16:01 AM8/30/05
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(Sorry, I sent this to comp.unix.unixware.misc the first time by mistake.)

We've installed an HP Proliant ML350 G4 with 512 mb of RAM, an HP Smart Array
641 SCSI adapter with RAID 1 hard drives, and 2 Perle Ultraport serial cards.
It's loaded with OpenServer 5.0.7, and Extended Feature Supplement 5.66a from
HP.

The first problem they reported was that it was "locking up" at least once a
day. They didn't seem to be able to write down any messages from the console,
but two key words I got were "NMI" and "CASM". HP's response was for me to
talk to one of their Windows 2000 people. If this helps anyone I think I
solved this by installing "System ROMPaq Firmware Upgrade Version 4.06" from
HP which I found on the web myself by using good ole google.

Now for the real reason for this message. The tape drive is connected to the
LSI Logic SCSI adapter on the mother board. The first time they access the
tape each Monday it isn't recognized by any commands like tar or tape, but
the LSI Logic adapter is recognized by hwconfig. After they shutdown and
restart everything is fine. They insist on shutting the computer down over
the weekend. This may be the cause, but it's not acceptable. Has anyone
experienced anything like this? I don't have much confidence in HP's Windows
experts.

--
Bob Parkhurst
Data Intelligence Systems Corp.

Mike Brown

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Aug 30, 2005, 4:06:36 PM8/30/05
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How are they rebooting the machine over the weekend? It seems strange that
after a reboot the tape doesn't work, but a reboot fixes it.

Mike

--
Michael Brown

Craig Green

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Aug 31, 2005, 12:45:33 AM8/31/05
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I have a client with an ML350-G4 who had the same problems that you have
mentioned. HP support were of no use. After a lot of hair pulling we
installed an Adaptec SCSI card and connected the tape drive to it. Since
then the system has run without any problems.

The long and short of it all is that you cannot connect the tape to the
on-board LSI SCSI controller even though HP say you can, (and I would
suspect you cannot use it for any other SCSI device). There is some
sort of conflict between the LSI and the HP Smart Array controller.

Hope this helps you.

Mark

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Sep 2, 2005, 5:37:41 PM9/2/05
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Well, interestingly, I have an ML350 G4 w/ a Smart Array card, and a HP
DAT 40 drive hooked up to the LSI SCSI onboard. What I have noticed is that
it will perform it's nighly backups for 2-3 days in a row, and then suddenly
the drive will not respond (i.e. will not rewind tape/read tape). Lone-Tar
reports that the drive is present, but it doesn't seem to respond properly
until I perform a reboot. I haven't checked hwconfig yet to see if the
device is listed however.
I thought it might be the tape drive, but since reading this I think it
could be the LSI controller after all. Will report back when it happens
again with more detail.

Mark

"Craig Green" <cmg...@deltalink.com.au> wrote in message
news:LBaRe.242$HC6....@nnrp1.ozemail.com.au...

Bill Vermillion

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Sep 2, 2005, 9:25:01 PM9/2/05
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In article <xy3Se.1950$qP3....@news1.mts.net>, Mark
<mr...@inland-av.com> wrote:

>Well, interestingly, I have an ML350 G4 w/ a Smart Array card,
>and a HP DAT 40 drive hooked up to the LSI SCSI onboard. What
>I have noticed is that it will perform it's nighly backups for
>2-3 days in a row, and then suddenly the drive will not respond
>(i.e. will not rewind tape/read tape). Lone-Tar reports that the
>drive is present, but it doesn't seem to respond properly until
>I perform a reboot. I haven't checked hwconfig yet to see if the
>device is listed however.

> I thought it might be the tape drive, but since reading this
>I think it could be the LSI controller after all. Will report
>back when it happens again with more detail.

Have you tried a reset command?

At one time with some HPs I always issued a reset before starting
backups to make sure they always went through. I haven't had to do
that recently.

In another case when the tape will not rewind the tape, be sure
to check that the program is not waiting for some file to unlock.
I've seen that before. A client would reboot the machine to fix
it and FINALLY called me in to look at it. I looked at the log
and saw it waiting for a file. The local admin was able to tell
what user was using that file in the database, had them log out
[as they had stayed logged on overnight] and *POOF** - the tape
started moving, the file backed up, rewound, and started a verify.
We killed the verify as so many files would have changed by that
time.

Often the only hardware problem is the nut that holds the
keyboard, as it was in this case, with users not wanting to have to
re-login and being lazy and staying logged in.

Check this before you start swapping any more hardware.

Bill


--
Bill Vermillion - bv @ wjv . com

Craig Green

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Sep 4, 2005, 7:59:08 PM9/4/05
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Mark, the symptoms you are describing with the tape working for a few
days then not responding are some of the problems that I had in addition
to the system locking up. The tape would not respond to any commands
issued to with "tape -s ...". I.E.: reset, unload, rewind, reten,
amount, status, xstatus, etc. Of course, it would not respond to tar,
cpio, or dd commands either.

On random occasions the system would indicate the tape drive was busy.
However checking all processes on the system indicated that it was not.

hwconfig -h would show that the LSI SCSI controller was configured
correctly with the right settings for the tape. hw would also report the
LSI controller correctly. sconf -v would indicate that it could find the
LSI SCSI controller with a device connected to it on id:2.

If we kept trying to access the tape drive when the system was in this
state the system would lock up or panic. If we just left the system
alone upon first detecting the tape was not responding the system would
get slower and then lock up.

Everything pointed to some sort of problem with the LSI controller or
driver. So I disabled the LSI in the BIOS and installed an add-on
Adaptec PCI-X SCSI controller and the system has not missed a beat since.

Pat Welch

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Sep 7, 2005, 7:29:11 AM9/7/05
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Bob Parkhurst wrote:

I've got about 10 of those in the field, using a mixture of HP DDS4 and
AIT-1 tape drives.

None of them have missed a beat since they were installed. One thing I
always did was install the tape drive on the 2nd LSI channel, and used a
BTLD disk generated from 5.66a or the new 5.68a EFS rather than SCO's
version of the ciss (641/642) and lsil (onboard SCSI tape) drivers.

But, none of them have 3rd party serial cards in them. Bet that's the
problem.

--
----------------------------------------------------
Pat Welch, UBB Computer Services, a WCS Affiliate
SCO Authorized Partner
Unix/Linux/Windows/Hardware Sales/Support
(209) 745-1401 Cell: (209) 251-9120
E-mail: pat...@inreach.com
----------------------------------------------------

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