old Adaptec I2O RAID vs. a new Cheetah U320 15k => narrow/async

[Frantisek.Rysanek]

Dear everyone,

I'm having fun with some old hardware, I'm stress-testing an old
Adaptec RAID controller with a large number of disk drives etc. While
I'm at it, I've discovered an interesting incompatibility.

Related hardware:

Adaptec 3210 (I2O RAID, IOP303 + AIC7899 U160)
Seagate ST373455LC (73 GB, U320, 15k RPM)

The DPT/I2O BIOS always reports the disk negotiated as narrow/async/
3MBps. The disk is mounted in a hot-swap drawer in a 6bay SCA
enclosure, together with five other disks (various Seagate and
Fujitsu) - all the other disks are detected properly as U320. The
culprit disk is misdetected in this way no matter what, regardless of
which bay I put it into. At the same time, if I remove the Adaptec
RAID an plug the cable into a plain U320 HBA, the culprit disk drive
is detected properly as U320, no matter which bay I put it into, and
runs just fine under Linux (~130 MBps sequential read/write) without a
hint of SCSI-related problems.

My idea is, that this is not likely an electric/impedance problem on
the SCSI bus. Rather, it seems to be an incompatibility between the
firmwares of the two devices.

Neither Adaptec nor Seagate have an e-mail contact to their
tech.support on their web, and their FAQ's are not much use. Adaptec
does have a slightly fresher firmware (from sometime in 2001) on its
web, but it's labeled as ASR-2110 (not 3210), and there's no "release
note" about the bugs it fixes. I'm somewhat reluctant to flash that. I
don't like this sort of "blind flashing" and this is not a pressing
issue at the moment...

I know the ASR-3210 is nowadays hopelessly out of date, hardly
supported anymore. The obvious solution is to use a 2120 or a 2130 for
the single bus that I have But still, any ideas are welcome.

Frank Rysanek

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

Dear everyone,

I'm having fun with some old hardware, I'm stress-testing an old
Adaptec RAID controller with a large number of disk drives etc.
While I'm at it, I've discovered an interesting incompatibility.

Related hardware:

Adaptec 3210 (I2O RAID, IOP303 + AIC7899 U160)
Seagate ST373455LC (73 GB, U320, 15k RPM)

The DPT/I2O BIOS always reports the disk negotiated as narrow/async/
3MBps. The disk is mounted in a hot-swap drawer in a 6bay SCA
enclosure, together with five other disks (various Seagate and Fujitsu) -

all the other disks are detected properly as U320.

How exactly does an U160 controller detect an U320 disk as U320?

The culprit disk is misdetected in this way no matter what, regardless
of which bay I put it into.

Did you try different setup parameters in the setup utility.
Is there a setting for Domain Validation (or whatever DPT called it).
If so, disable it.

At the same time, if I remove the Adaptec
RAID and plug the cable into a plain U320 HBA, the culprit disk drive
is detected properly as U320, no matter which bay I put it into, and
runs just fine under Linux (~130 MBps sequential read/write) without
a hint of SCSI-related problems.

My idea is, that this is not likely an electric/impedance problem on
the SCSI bus.

You could check by removing all other drives.

Rather, it seems to be an incompatibility between the firmwares of
the two devices.

Neither Adaptec nor Seagate have an e-mail contact to their tech
support on their web, and their FAQ's are not much use.

Adaptec does have a slightly fresher firmware (from sometime in 2001)
on its web,

but it's labeled as ASR-2110 (not 3210),

You can probably ignore that. It appears universal.

Internally it mentions
3110F 3410S 3210S and 2110S
ADAPTEC 3000S
ADAPTEC 2100S
ADAPTEC 2400A
ADAPTEC 3210S
ADAPTEC 2005S

It also anounces as: "Adaptec RAID Setup Utility V1.12/66I 9/4/2001"
No model fixing.

and there's no "release note" about the bugs it fixes.
I'm somewhat reluctant to flash that.

It's found under 3210s support, you should be save.

I don't like this sort of "blind flashing"

If that's even possible:
"The selected file %s is not a %s flash image for this type of adapter"

and this is not a pressing issue at the moment...

I know the ASR-3210 is nowadays hopelessly out of date, hardly
supported anymore.

What support would it need now that it didn't when it was younger?

 

[Frantisek.Rysanek]

Dear Mr. Rienstra,

thanks a lot for your response

How exactly does an U160 controller detect an U320 disk as U320?

.... sorry, detected as U160 obviously
Detected as U320 on an AIC7902 plain HBA.

Did you try different setup parameters in the setup utility.
Is there a setting for Domain Validation (or whatever DPT called it).
If so, disable it.

I don't think those parameters can be changed. Maybe I should try the
Tab key again. I'll try again.

You could check by removing all other drives.

I did try that as well. Didn't help.

You can probably ignore that. It appears universal.

I've actually flashed that, and it works

Internally it mentions
3110F 3410S 3210S and 2110S
ADAPTEC 3000S
ADAPTEC 2100S
ADAPTEC 2400A
ADAPTEC 3210S
ADAPTEC 2005S

It also anounces as: "Adaptec RAID Setup Utility V1.12/66I 9/4/2001"
No model fixing.


If that's even possible:
"The selected file %s is not a %s flash image for this type of adapter"

hehe, didn't get as far as running "strings" on the image file

BTW, I seem to recall trying to flash a ZCR-2005 firmware into a
ZCR-2015 card.
It did work out after a change in the filename I believe. That was
some five
years ago...

What support would it need now that it didn't when it was younger?

Fresh firmware updates to solve potential compatibility issues with
today's drives?
Just a guess, anyway
I really meant to say that hardly any vendor will help you with
hardware that
you've purchased 10 years ago (in terms of newly written software
updates),
and that's definitely reasonable.

After some more testing, I have to say that in general it seems that
the I2O firmware copes pretty well with today's drives.

Frank Rysanek

 

[Frantisek.Rysanek]

I've actually flashed that, and it works

err... I meant to say that the firmware does run on the 3210 hardware.
It does not solve the compatibility issue with the Cheetah drive.

Frank Rysanek

 

[Folkert Rienstra]

(e-mail address removed) wrote in

err... I meant to say that the firmware does run on the 3210 hardware.

Btw, there was an I2O BIOS on the site that was newer than the one
contained in that 'firmware' package. It too has the Storage Manager.

It does not solve the compatibility issue with the Cheetah drive.

Then it's up to Seagate to solve the problem.
If other U320 drives don't have the problem then neither should theirs.
Perhaps this is reason enough to return it/exchange it for something else?