topic Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems in Operating System - Tru64 Unix

AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 14:58:42 GMT

Hi,

I apologise if this is the wrong forum for this message - there doesn't seem to be an AlphaServer forum unfortunately.

I have just purchased an AlphaServer 4100 in a rack - the specs are as follows:

1x AlphaServer 4100 Rack
2x 21164-400-4Mb
2x 256Mb EDO
LSI Logic RAID with 2x Power, 6x4Gb SCSI disks
HSZ50 RAID with 2x(2x Power 6x4Gb SCSI disks)

After a bit of fiddling around (some blown power modules and someone put the CPUs in the wrong slots) I have gotten it to post to VGA, but none of the SCSI disks show up.

I booted the SCSI and RAID enclosures before turning on the unit and the lights on the disks go off one by one. Is this supposed to happen?

I'm not an expert with this unit though I have some experience of Alpha workstations; I'd expect the disks/containers to come up when you do show dev.

If I boot into AlphaBIOS it says that there are no disks installed. I have checked all the cables and they seem to be fine.

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

Regards,

John

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

G. Vrijhoeven — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:16:39 GMT

Hi John,

I found a document that might help you:

http://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/systems/as4100/docs/4100_ug.pdf

link

http://www.google.nl/search?q=cache:G_0EdyfvSn8J:ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/Alpha/systems/as4100/docs/4100_ug.pdf+AlphaServer+4100+disk+config&hl=nl&ie=UTF-8

Its section 6.2.?

HTH,

Gideon

PS i had a hanging IE when i opened it.

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:24:22 GMT

Hi John

you would have three choices. This one, because it probably involes Tru64 Unix or the storage forum, since it concerns the storage unit or maybe, the openvms.
The lights are supposed to go out.
You should be able to see the hsz50 disks with show dev. What happened to it? Has it been running before? Is that a single controller configuration or a redundant one?
Look at the controller(s) or the disks. Are there any amber lights? Next, connect a vt100 terminal or a notebook to the console port of the controller and use these commands:
show this full
show disk
show mirror
show unit
Post the results as attachment.

What os are you running?

greetings,

Michael

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:27:07 GMT

Hi Gideon,

did you mean opening the pdf file?
It may be quite big and take it's time to load.

John, you might download it for reference.

greetings,

Michael

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:27:21 GMT

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I have that document and the storageworks HSZ50 troubleshooting manual too but neither leave me any the wiser.

Even if I connect a single storageworks container to either onboard SCSI controller, I get nothing on them at all. I'd expect for the drives to show up as devices, albeit without the RAID configuration.

Regards,

John

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:30:03 GMT

John,

what model of disk did you connect to what model of controller?

Michael

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

G. Vrijhoeven — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:40:16 GMT

Michael,

IE hanged opening the HTML link, not the pdf (Not responding)

John,

I would advice you to answer Michaels questions, your in luck he is online to help you.

Gideon

PS 0 Points please

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:57:16 GMT

Hi,

Sorry Michael, your replied after I had started writing my first reply to G.

The history of this is that it is a pull from Esprit Telecom that was sold to me. From what I can see the machine hasn't been messed with much but I have no idea what is on the machine yet or if I will need to install an OS.

Onto the configuration, from what I can see there is the following:

QLogic ISP10X0 connected to the backplane of the battery backup (I have no clue why this is, maybe there were some extra disks in there once).

DEC KZPSA connected to a pair of HSZ50/HSX inline. Terminated at both ends (is that right?). 3 of the channels on the HSZ50 module are connected to StorageWorks containers with 6 disks each in them.

All diagnostic lights on the unit are correct (HSZ50s are not amber and reset light is flashing once per second on each unit). The HSZ50 seems to correctly power up the drives one by one.

No need for an attachment :)

P00>>>show this full
P00>>>show disk
P00>>>show mirror
P00>>>show unit
P00>>>

I attached one of the storageworks arrays directly to both of the controllers in turn; the disks are RZ29B-VW.

Thanks very much for taking the time and I hope I have given you all the information
you asked for.

Regards,

John

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 17:58:13 GMT

I don't know if this is any use too:

P00>>>show dev
polling ncr0 (NCR 53C810) slot 1, bus 0 PCI, hose 1 SCSI Bus ID 7
dka500.5.0.1.1 DKA500 RRD45 0436
polling isp0 (QLogic ISP10X0) slot 0, bus 2 PCI, hose 1 SCSI Bus ID 7
polling pks0 (DEC KZPSA) slot 4, bus 0 PCI, hose 1
pkc.7.0.4.1 dkc TPwr 1 Fast 1 Bus ID 7 P01 A12
polling floppy0 (FLOPPY) PCEB - XBUS hose 0
dva0.0.0.1000.0 DVA0 RX23
polling tulip0 (DECchip 21140-AA) slot 2, bus 0 PCI, hose 1
ewa0.0.0.2.1 00-00-F8-30-03-30 FastFD (Full Duplex)

J

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 18:23:55 GMT

Hi,

don't ask me about terminators. I haven't dealt with them too much. But I think, termination on both ends is right. The hsz50 flash roughly once per second at out site too. The commands I gave you, should be entered on the console of one of the hsz50. since it seems to be a dual redundant configuration add
show other full
show fail
to it.
Connect a simple vt100 terminal to it.

please post also
show config

thanks,

Michael

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 18:37:14 GMT

Ohhh onto the console of the HSZ50. Sorry!

Um I don't have a console cable for it so I will have to make one. I have a couple of different RJ45 console cables for cisco routers and stuff so maybe one of them will work - if not I'm sure the tech reference has the pinout.

Regards,

J

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 19:12:54 GMT

John,

the show config was meant for the alpha console. Have you tried booting? Does the alpha have builtin disks?

Michael

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 19:32:31 GMT

Hi,

The 4100 doesn't have builtin disks, no; nor are there any disks not attached via the HSZ50. It claims its boot device to be dkc100.1.0.4.1 which sounds about right.

P00>>>boot
(boot dkc100.1.0.4.1 -flags a)
device dkc100.1.0.4.1 no longer valid

Show conf is below. I will have to make up a RJ11->RJ45 cable with the right pin connections tomorrow.

Regards,

John

P00>>>sh conf
Digital Equipment Corporation
AlphaServer 4100

Console V5.7-4 OpenVMS PALcode V1.21-2, Digital UNIX PALcode V1.23-2

Module Type Rev Name
System Motherboard 0 0000 mthrbrd0
Memory 512 MB EDO 0 0000 mem0
CPU (4MB Cache) 3 0001 cpu0
CPU (4MB Cache) 3 0001 cpu1
Bridge (IOD0/IOD1) 600 0032 iod0/iod1
PCI Motherboard 8 0000 saddle0

Bus 0 iod0 (PCI0)
Slot Option Name Type Rev Name
1 PCEB 4828086 0015 pceb0
2 S3 Trio64/Trio32 88115333 0000 vga0

Bus 1 pceb0 (EISA Bridge connected to iod0, slot 1)
Slot Option Name Type Rev Name

Bus 0 iod1 (PCI1)
Slot Option Name Type Rev Name
1 NCR 53C810 11000 0002 ncr0
2 DECchip 21140-AA 91011 0012 tulip0
3 PCI-PCI Bridge 11011 0002 pcb0
4 DEC KZPSA 81011 0000 pks0

Bus 2 pcb0 (PCI-PCI Bridge connected to iod1, slot 3)
Slot Option Name Type Rev Name
0 QLogic ISP10X0 10201077 0002 isp

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 19:54:42 GMT

Hi,

if there aren't any disks attached, you can't see one.
You also can't just insert a disk into the hsz50 and expect the alpha to see anything. You have to run a configuration on the hsz50 and supply a unit for the alpha to see.

Here it late too. See you tomorrow,

Michael

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 20:34:56 GMT

Hi,

Am I to understand that if the configuration on the HSZ50 has been wiped, then despite the fact that there may be some disks attached, until containers have been made via the HSZ50 console, you won't be able to see any disks visible?

That does make sense of course, although it doesn't explain why when I connected the disk array to the other controller, I couldn't see any SCSI devices.

It seems that my main problem as it stands is finding a pinout for the console or finding a cable.

Thanks for the help; I don't think I can get any further until I've ordered a console cable.

Regards,

John

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sat, 20 Mar 2004 21:24:18 GMT

Bit of an update here - I've gotten it to boot into single user mode by putting the root disk into the NCR backplane and booting dkb500.

I don't think this helps me medium term because I still can't configure the HSZ50 in there.

Is there any way of configuring it without using the console port? Maybe you can access the console from within DU?

Regards,

J

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Jeff Wolfe_1 — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 01:46:46 GMT

John,

You are stuck on the config of the HSZ without a cable or a least 1 unit defined. With a unit defined, you can set host/scsi . But without that you'll have to find the proper cable. The units usally come with an RJ-45 to MMJ pigtail that will then accept a standard VT cable. I can post the part # for this cable on Monday AM EST.

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

John Appleby_1 — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 05:03:14 GMT

Hi,

According to http://www.xenya.si/sup/info/digital/MDS/jun99/Cd3/STORAGE/HSZ50SVC.PDF (section 2.4, image 2.1) it's s 17-03511-04

I've searched on the net and a few people claim to have them in stock (no prices defined mind you).

I presume that unless I know the RAID configuration, there's no chance of being able to restore the old configuration and I'm going to be reinstalling from scratch.

In any case, from what I can see of the root partition, the machine is running DU4.0G and Oracle and is in a bit of a mess.

Regards,

John

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Michael Schulte zur Sur — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 06:34:29 GMT

John,

the old company, who owned this machine probably put some energy into it to make sure, that no company data will be left on the disks. This includes deconfiguring the units/mirrors/disks.

In the documentation you should see the product number of the console cable. Look for this small adapter as Jeff mentioned.
Do you have a vt terminal?

What makes me wonder is, that it seems to see no internal disks.
What disks have you connected to the internal controller?

What are going to do with it? Using it for Tru64? If so, you may try booting from cdrom and see, if the installation programme sees any disks.

good morning,

Michael

Re: AlphaServer 4100 disk problems

Jeff Wolfe_1 — Sun, 21 Mar 2004 09:50:04 GMT

John,

You'll also need part #12-43346. I never realized they were sold seperatly. My HSZ's always came with the 2 pieces as 1 piece.

Once you get access to the HSZ, you can run the config utility which will discover and add the disks into the configuration. You'll have no way of knowing what type of storage sets previoulsy existed. And as the previous post state, most users would have erased the disks. You can then create a 1 to 1 unit to disk map and see what the OS sees.

BTW..is the flash card installed in the slot of the HSZ controller(s)? If not then you have a bigger problem.