topic Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_?? in Operating System - OpenVMS

OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Sebastian Perez — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 17:02:52 GMT

We are working with ES-40 Alpha Server, 850MHz.
We added a SCSI card to conect a Backup driver <100-300GB>.We work on OPEN VMS.
The problem is when we make a backup, always the system reboot and we don't know why?
Any idea about this??
Thnx.

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Martin P.J. Zinser — Wed, 12 Nov 2003 17:51:38 GMT

Do you have a crash dump? If yes what does SDA give you? If not, enable dump writing before your next backup ;-)

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Veli Körkkö — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 00:49:07 GMT

You don't tell us your VMS version but it must at least V7.1-2 of course. System does write memory dumps by default and on on reboot it usually produces SYS$ERRORLOG:CLUE$sysnam_...LIS file. Contents of those CLUE$....LIS would be extremely useful.

Typical things to do:

a) upgrade ES40 firmware to recent level
b) apply all relevant, preferably ALL VMS patches
c) upgrade the firmware on your tape drive
(Certain tape drivels models have had issues on their firmware causing havoc on VMS host)

d) contact your CS organixation for a-c if needed

_veli

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Antoniov. — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 02:25:13 GMT

Until you have solved, disbale reboot after bug;
$ SYSMAN PARAM SET BUGREBOOT 0
After you solved, restore orignal value
$ SYSMAN PARAM SET BUGREBOOT 1

Bye
Antoniov

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Antoniov. — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 02:28:45 GMT

Oops, I've forgotten MCR
$ MCR SYSMAN
PARAM SET BUGREBOOT 0
PARAM WRITE CURRENT
EXIT

Excuse me
Antoniov

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Willem Grooters — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 03:09:15 GMT

Some hints and questions...
* Seen the size, I assume you use a DLT-type of drive. Is that correct? If this is SDLT, I've been told there are some issues in combination with VMS.
* When does the reboot occur: when DLT is inserted, at start of write operation, or during this operation, change of tape, end (during or after final processing)? This might shine a light.
* If you can load a tape, can you mount it?
* What does console tell you: does the new SCSI show up in SHOW CONFIG and SHOW DEVICE? * Same for the backup device
* What happens if you INIT ?
* What happens if you MOUNT?
* Is the unit number of the unit not conflicting with another device on that SCSI controller?

For the rest: indeed check crashdump.

HTH

Willem

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Jeff Chisholm — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 11:14:20 GMT

Yes, the output from...
$ ana/cras sys$system
SDA> clue crash

...would be really useful if you could post it here please. There's a couple of open elevations with certain scsi cards that use the sys$pkwdriver, backups to SDLT tape fail or hang. Make sure you've got modern firmware and the latest fibre_scsi kit for your version... which was what?

If you need assistance setting up a dumpfile, let me know and I'll post the article. /jeff

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Sebastian Perez — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 17:49:19 GMT

I have some information that can be useful to help us.
ItÂ´s attached in txt format.
Thank

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Jeff Chisholm — Thu, 13 Nov 2003 19:18:22 GMT

Exception Frame:
----------------
R2 = FFFFFFFF.800A2D54 MNTVER$PACKACK_VOL_C+00134
R3 = FFFFFFFF.A68FFC78
R4 = FFFFFFFF.85CC95C0 EXE$MNTVERSIO
R5 = FFFFFFFF.8105F040
R6 = FFFFFFFF.800A5448 MNTVER$GET_CKSUM_BUF_C+00D18
R7 = FFFFFFFF.8105F740
PC = FFFFFFFF.8105F74C
PS = 38000000.00000804

Note the lack of symbols for the PC. Note that R5, R7 and the PC are all in the same neighborhood.

Note that this is V7.1-2, I wonder what sort of tapedrive this is. The system seems to be patched up to rev pretty well.

Note the PACKACK. Has the bus been correctly terminated? Do we have errors in the errorlog just prior to the crash. A device error from the tapedrive and a scsi bus reset?

I'm going to guess that the tape drive is on the PKB SCSI bus, Symbios 895, using the sys$pkwdriver. Let's move it to one of the other adapters and see what the behavior is.

Log a support call, we'll look at this.
/jeff

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Sebastian Perez — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 11:42:09 GMT

Here is the tape drive especifications.
And what We have here:

Magtape AXPPRO$MKB500:, device type COMPAQ SuperDLT1, is online, file-oriented
device, error logging is enabled.

Error count 0 Operations completed 0
Owner process "" Owner UIC [SYSTEM]
Owner process ID 00000000 Dev Prot S:RWPL,O:RWPL,G:R,W
Reference count 0 Default buffer size 2048
Density unknown Format Normal-11

Volume status: no-unload on dismount, position lost, odd parity.

110/220 GB SDLT
Series 3306
Serial: RBD0400650.

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Jeff Chisholm — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:25:36 GMT

Just as I suspected, the symbios 895, PKB and the sys$pkwdriver. Move it to one of the other SCSI controllers, double and triple check termination. If you continue to have problems, log a case to the CSC and I'll have a look in depth.

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Sebastian Perez — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:52:42 GMT

Thanx Jeff.

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Sebastian Perez — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:53:12 GMT

Thanx Jeff.
But I donÂ´t have the number to open a cas

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Sebastian Perez — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 12:58:01 GMT

What is CSC???

Re: OPEN VMS, SCSI Card and now always reboot, why_??

Antoniov. — Fri, 14 Nov 2003 13:53:16 GMT

As Jeff suspected,
symbios 895 may not work with alpha; look at this link (linux on alpha):
http://lists.debian.org/debian-alpha/2000/debian-alpha-200009/msg00033.html
http://www.geocrawler.com/archives/3/154/2000/6/50/3925772/
it seems SRM (the AXP BIOS) doesn't support SCSI NCR 895
You can find the patch solve your problem here:
http://www4.itrc.hp.com/service/patch/patchDetail.do?BC=patch.breadcrumb.main|patch.breadcrumb.search|&patchid=VMS731_UPDATE-V0100&context=openvms:alpha:7.3-1

H.T.H.
Antoniov