wrong size of IBM DFHS external 7204 SCSI disk

[Fang Yuan]

I connected a 14 GB IBM 7204 SCSI external disk to my A500 server, after I did "ioscan -fnC disk", system saw the disk. After I used SAM to create VG, it showed up it was only a 4 GB disk. Here is the output of "diskinfo -v "
bash-2.04# diskinfo -v /dev/dsk/c0t4d0
diskinfo: Character device required
bash-2.04# diskinfo -v /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0
SCSI describe of /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0:
vendor: IBMRISC
product id: DFHSS4W
type: direct access
size: 4406935 Kbytes
bytes per sector: 512
rev level: 4242
blocks per disk: 8813870
ISO version: 0
ECMA version: 0
ANSI version: 2
removable media: no
response format: 2
(Additional inquiry bytes: ....
Does anyone know why?

[Steven E. Protter]

My guess based on many other posts is the firrmware on the disk is not compatible with HP-UX.

Complain as you may, but you don't have this problem when you obtain disks that HP certifies will work with HP-9000 servers.

I'd open a hardware call if you have a contracct but unless the firmware can be upgraded, you probably should not use the drive.

I'm assuming you have it on the right kind of scsi with termination or you would not have gotten so far.

One question: Can you actually use the 4 GB or do you get an error?

SEP

[A. Clay Stephenson]

If the product ID is correct ("DFHSS4W") then that is indeed a 4GB disk. The 7204 Model came in several sizes so if you are certain of the size then use pvcreate -s size to specify the number of disk sectors.

[ross martin_2]

Yes.
The firmware is not HP.
Lot's of people try to buy disks from other sources -- seagate, ibm, etc. and they may even be the same vendor part number -- but these vendors have an agreement with HP not to provide the HP firmware which HPUX needs to validate the drive.

You can buy HP disk drives from lots of outlets, but they need to be an HP disk drive part number or it will be missing the HP firmware.

Hope that helps,

Ross

[Fang Yuan]

Thanks for your helps!
From ioscan, it did show up as DFHSS4W :
bash-2.04# ioscan -fnkC disk
Class I H/W Path Driver S/W State H/W Type Description
======================================================================
disk 4 0/0/1/0.4.0 sdisk CLAIMED DEVICE IBMRISC DFHSS4W
/dev/dsk/c0t4d0 /dev/rdsk/c0t4d0
But I am sure it was not right. Maybe upgrade the firmwire is the way to go, it is an old disk (1995 from IBM)

[Fang Yuan]

Clay, How could I determine the sector size of the disk when I use pvcreate?

[Eugeny Brychkov · Accepted solution]

Fang,
it's really 4GB disk with sector size 512 bytes and 8813870 sectors. These are correct parameters for DFHSS4W. I do not know why you think this disk should be 14GB (I doubt disk of this capacity ever exist). Where did you see it?
Eugeny