SCSI Controller Boot Problem

[John Marcus]

I have an older LH4 with a built in 2 channel Netraid controller. Originally I had a single array with 3 18g, 7.2k drives connected to the netraid controller and all worked well. I set it up as system Raid 5 and forgot it. I bought a second drive array cage and put in 4 36g 10k drives, putting the spare in the other, primary cage spare slot, but did not configure it.

I hooked up the new, 10k array to the second channel on the cable already supplied. The system recognized the new drives but I could not configure them with CTRL-M or use them, but the controller said they were recognized but did not identify the individual drives.

I bought a 2940uw controller and put the secondary cage on it and configured the drives as Windows 2000 Server raid 5 successfully and had been using it successfully since.

I bought a 2.2tb SDLT-1 tape changer (Overland LoaderXpress). The drive does work, but not on that server yet. I made the mistake of putting it on the 2940uw connector and messing the first drive in the 2nd array which I had to rebuild.

I bought and installed a 29160 controller to put the tape drive on. In boot, the controller properly identified the drive and library. But after all the drives were identified, as the system tried to boot into Windows, it failed and rebooted. The 29160 became the master controller and the system ignored the netraid drives.

In system bios, I changed the order of disks to boot, putting the netraid first, the 2940uw second and bootable cards last. This did not help. I tried a different 29160 with the same results.

I ordered another 2940uw so I can put the tape drive in and back up both arrays.

Is there a problem using the 29160? Is there another recommended controller? Am I missing something?

Ideally I'd like to leave the boot array on the netraid. I'd like to buy a 29320 or 39320 or something else fast, or even a 320 mb/s controller that supports raid 5 and put the secondary array on it and re-create it restoring from tape. I'd then like to put in a 29160 or so just for the tape library. This way I can get high throughput from the drives to the tape backup.

John - jmarcus@ncord.com or jmarcus@w9dg.com

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi John,

Let's take a step back here. You installed a second drive cage and installed 4x36GB drives in it. Did you re-flash the BIOS to make sure both backplanes are at the same revision? The latest one can be downloaded here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=50440&prodNameId=15383&swEnvOID=226&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ns-12645-1

Next, there are 3 SCSI ports in the server:
SCSI-A
SCSI-B
SCSI-SE
You can only use 2 of these ports at a time. If you want the second drive cage to be configured in a RAID, the cage needs to be connected to SCSI-B and you need to go into the BIOS and enable SCSI-B which is disabled by default.

Next, what operating system are you using? If it is Windows based, you can use NetRAID Assistant to create your new logical drive. If you don't have it, you can download it from here:
http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/SoftwareDescription.jsp?lang=en&cc=us&prodTypeId=15351&prodSeriesId=50440&prodNameId=15383&swEnvOID=226&swLang=13&mode=2&taskId=135&swItem=ns-12645-1

Of course, this means that you will need to connect your tape drive to a PCI SCSI card. I don't know if the U320 is going to work for you; HP does not support U320 on Netservers. You'll need to try it to see if it works.
Let us know how that works out and if you need any walk-throughs.

Best of luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

P.S. Please encourage participation in the forums by assigning points rating the value of your responses.

[John Marcus]

Thanks. First, the original array with the 3 9.1g drives is connected in the right side of the server as you face it. Nothing is connected to the SCSI on the left side, nor did it work. I am assuming that is the SCSI B side. If nothing is connected to the left side, are you saying the rear connector can be used for the tape drive? Will I need to enable SCSI B in the bios to use the tape drive on the rear connector?

My additional drives are on the 2940UW card with software raid.

Do you think that I can later enable the SCSI B side and hardware raid the drives on the left? Or better yet, can I put in a 29160 and drive the additional drives with a software raid and another 29160 to drive the tape drive? If so, what prevents them from becomming master boot controllers?

John Marcus

[Sean T. Craig]

Hi John,

I don't recommend using a software RAID to anyone who has the option of using a hardware RAID instead. In your case, you have the option of using the hardware RAID that is embedded on the server's I/O board.

Here's my recommendation:
Connect the secondary cage (on the left side) to the SCSI-B connector on the I/O board and enable SCSI-B in the System BIOS. Use NetRAID Assistant to create the RAID-5 array in the second cage.
Connect your backup unit to the 29160 controller. Most of all, never, never, never connect a tape drive to a RAID controller. The only devices you should connect to a RAID controller are devices that may be part of a RAID Array.

Good luck,

Sean T. Craig Sr. C.E.T., M.C.P.

[John Marcus]

Thanks for your reply.

With the SCSI B turned on (Both A&B are on), the controller says I have new drives attached but cannot read the 36g 10k drives as I thought the system could read.

Anytime I put in the 29160, the system does not read any of the Netraid built in the system I tried disabling the bios settings for the 29160, but it still causes the system not to recognize the Netraid.

I then tried different cables for the Netraid's SCSI B with no luck. Finally with nothing on SCSI B, I put the tape changer and was able to recognize only the drive, not the library (which loads as a seperate device). I suspect there is something wrong with the SCSI B on the system board. My next try is to disable the SCSI B on the main board and try the 29160 again. But I had ordered, (cheaply), another 2940uw and will try that so at least I can successfully backup everything in the system before attempting too much experimentation.

John