Re: ssa oddity - or maybe it is just me

From: JOSEPH KREMBLAS (jkremblas@REDHEARTGIFTS.COM)
Date: Fri Jan 09 2004 - 17:34:21 EST


I obviously misinterpreted your prior submission. I'm inclined to say, "it's
a bad hard drive." Of course, before this can be stated with any degree of
accuracy or "belief," I would employ the services of the 'errpt -a' command
to confirm: (1) there is an OPEN SSA LINK ERROR and (2) that the AIX error
log analysis is reporting a bad drive, esp. considering that you've done
you're due dilligence with validating and updating the microcode at the
adapter level and physical hard drive level.

In a nutshell, I stand corrected. Thank you, Sir.

        Cheers,

        Joseph

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM AIX Discussion List [mailto:aix-l@Princeton.EDU] On Behalf Of Bill
Verzal
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 3:08 PM
To: aix-l@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: ssa oddity - or maybe it is just me

Well, these are internal SSA drives on the 6F1. There is no SSA drawer, and
therefore no bypass cards. All 4 drives are on the A loop and the B loop is
unused. I have 2 "blue" SSA cables going from A1/A2 to the SSA connectors
on the back of the unit.

As I tested further and moved drives around the internal cage, the
non-working drives as well moved around, thereby eliminating the cable/plug
being bad.

So, I have 2 SSA drives bad. Oh well.

BV
--------------------------------------------------------

"If everything is coming your way, then you are in the wrong lane"

Bill Verzal
AIX Administrator, Komatsu America
(847) 970-3726 - direct
(847) 970-4184 - fax

             JOSEPH KREMBLAS
             <jkremblas@REDHEA
             RTGIFTS.COM> To
             Sent by: IBM AIX aix-l@Princeton.EDU
             Discussion List cc
             <aix-l@Princeton.
             EDU> Subject
                                       Re: ssa oddity - or maybe it is
                                       just me
             01/09/2004 03:57
             PM

             Please respond to
                  IBM AIX
              Discussion List
             <aix-l@Princeton.
                   EDU>

I also want to point out that if the by-pass card is set to "forced-inline"
this can cause a blinking green light. The rules of blinking green lights
are:

        2 short blinks = only 1 ssa link is active
        5 quick short blinks = drive is active with a command in progress

If 2 short blinks, then consider this:

        1) is the SSA cable good? If using D40's, then you must have
"the blue cables"; if not A*N*D you're mixing "the black cables (020)" with
"the blue cables (D40)" then improper configuration = 80MB/sec and not
SSA160 (160MB/sec.).
        2) invalid cabling--not connected to A ports (for an A loop)
or
B ports (for a B loop)
        3) is the SSA shared (twin-tailed) with another system? If so,
then this could explain the "only 1 ssa link is active." causing it to blink
every 2 seconds; you must connect SSA cable to the other ssytem to
"complete" the electronic circuits in the loop to complete a full loop,
provided, of course, that the other system is powered on (else, blinking
green light)
        4) the by-pass card is set to "forced in-line" mode

I hope this helps.

JK

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM AIX Discussion List [mailto:aix-l@Princeton.EDU] On Behalf Of
JOSEPH KREMBLAS
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 1:53 PM
To: aix-l@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: ssa oddity - or maybe it is just me

Typically a blinking green light denotes a broken link. Is the drive light
itself blinking or the port #?

-----Original Message-----
From: IBM AIX Discussion List [mailto:aix-l@Princeton.EDU] On Behalf Of Bill
Verzal
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 1:10 PM
To: aix-l@Princeton.EDU
Subject: Re: ssa oddity - or maybe it is just me

SSA adapter microcode is up to date. I applied that earlier in the week.
Server microcode is current. Applied that earlier in the week as well.

oslevel is 5200-02.

The drives are DMVC, which do not have microcode updates on the SSA site. I
already checked that.

BV
--------------------------------------------------------

"If everything is coming your way, then you are in the wrong lane"

Bill Verzal
AIX Administrator, Komatsu America
(847) 970-3726 - direct
(847) 970-4184 - fax

             "Patrick B.
             O'Brien"
             <pobrien@DOIT.NV. To
             GOV> aix-l@Princeton.EDU
             Sent by: IBM AIX cc
             Discussion List
             <aix-l@Princeton. Subject
             EDU> Re: ssa oddity - or maybe it is
                                       just me

             01/09/2004 02:02
             PM

             Please respond to
                  IBM AIX
              Discussion List
             <aix-l@Princeton.
                   EDU>

My first thought is Microcode.

Did you look at the loops in Diag, SSA Service Aids?

-----Original Message-----
From: Bill Verzal [mailto:BVerzal@KOMATSUNA.COM]
Sent: Friday, January 09, 2004 11:59 AM
To: aix-l@Princeton.EDU
Subject: ssa oddity - or maybe it is just me

Hi *.

I have a 6F1 here that I am building out. It has 4 SSA 18.2 internal disk
and a SSA160 adapter cables A1/A2 to the internal disks. B1/B2 are not
cabled.

The outside 2 drives (slots 1 and 4) are blinking green, slots 5 and 6 have
fillers. The A loop light on the SSA adapter is green solid.

Only 2 pdisk and hdisks show up on the system.

What is this telling me ?

BV
--------------------------------------------------------

"If everything is coming your way, then you are in the wrong lane"

Bill Verzal
AIX Administrator, Komatsu America
(847) 970-3726 - direct
(847) 970-4184 - fax



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