Topic: SCSI Adapter : How do I upgrade?

[pisaacs]

Hi,
I have upgraded a tape system form DLT4(35/70G) to SDLT1(110/220G) but am now getting IO Errors when I backup.

In desperation, I am going to upgrade the SCSI adapter from an 'Adaptec 2940 Ultra SCSI adapter' to a new 'Adaptec ASC-39160'.

I will physically remove the 2940 from the system and place the ASC-39160 into the same slot on the motherboard, then connect the tape drive.
I dont run anything from the SCSI except the tape drive.

Will I need to do anything the the SME server to get it to recognise the SCSI card or the new tape drive.

I am running SME 6,

regards

Paul

[gbentley]

Paul, did you get your 39160 running ?

Mine just hangs when trying to load the aic7xxx module !!!

[randallp]

Hi,
There are known problems with the aic7xxx driver with kernel 2.4 (as these problems popped up in 2001)

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=29555

The drivers older than that worked, and after that..they worked.

I came across this problem when trying to install e-smith 6.0.1 on a box with an Adaptec Ultra160 controller card.  The anaconda installer wouldn't even initialize.  It would die at trying to load the aic7xxx module.

So, there are really a couple of options around this problem.  Here are the steps I took (other options at end of this post)
1. I decided to pop in an extra IDE drive in the machine.
2. I then removed the adaptec controller from the server case.  
3. install esmith onto the IDE drive (and create boot diskette).
4. After the install, power down server.
5. Reinstall controller and turn on server
6. The server comes up, but no scsi support. Sooo. you  type 'insmod aic7xxx'.  The voila, SCSI support.
(if this doesn't work, and it hangs again...replace
/lib/modules/2.4.20-18.7/kernel/drivers/scsi/aic7xxx/aic7xxx.o
with a newer version.

7. create new partitions on the scsi drive
8. cpio all the files from IDE to the scsi drive
9. modify boot floppy to boot from scsi drive.
10. reboot using the image on the scsi.
11. after success, remove the IDE drive.

Seems abit winded, I know.
Another option is to download the source for the install image and just fix it there.  This was faster for me this way (and for those who are working with a downed Internet connection).

[paul_NZ]

Hi,
7. create new partitions on the scsi drive
9. modify boot floppy to boot from scsi drive.
10. reboot using the image on the scsi.

randallp (or anyone else please), are you able to give me specific instructions to complete step 7 & 8 please

Thanks

[mrjhb3]

Hi,
I have upgraded a tape system form DLT4(35/70G) to SDLT1(110/220G) but am now getting IO Errors when I backup.

Paul

Paul,

I am assuming you are using 6.x.  What I/O error are you getting?  Something like this?
/dev/nst0: Input/output error.  
If so, this is only cosmetic.  If you do the below, do you see your data?
mt -f /dev/nst0 rewind
mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf 1
flexbackup -list

If so, then your backups are good, and you can do this to get rid of that I/O error.

pico -w /etc/e-smith/events/actions/tape-restore-flexbackup

around line 138, replace tell with status.
old
    system("/bin/mt -f $device tell > /dev/null 2>&1");

new
    system("/bin/mt -f $device status > /dev/null 2>&1");

If you check bugzilla, you will see that that is what is being done in sme7 as well.  I have had to do this for all of my DLT drives running on 6.x.

HTH,

JB

[randallp]

Hi,
7. create new partitions on the scsi drive
9. modify boot floppy to boot from scsi drive.
10. reboot using the image on the scsi.

randallp (or anyone else please), are you able to give me specific instructions to complete step 7 & 8 please

Thanks

Sure.  Now understand my reply was specifically to the post about errors loading module (by gbentley).  The IO errors aren't because of that module (if all of your scsi devices on that card are already working).

Anyway, to partition you can use fdisk /dev/sda
At a minimum, create 3 partitions;
Here is the setup on one of my boxes:
Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 8841 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes

   Device Boot    Start       End    Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *         1        13    104391   83  Linux
/dev/sda2            14        46    265072+  82  Linux swap
/dev/sda3            47      8841  70645837+  83  Linux

The first is for the boot loader, swap space, then root volume.

The boot floppy..well here is a link to LILO info.
http://www.freeos.com/articles/2701/

and that will let you reboot off the SCSI drive

Be sure to modify your startup to insert that new module so it loads at boot.