The SCSISelect UtilityDell™ PowerEdge™ 4600 Systems User's Guide
This section describes how to install and configure the SCSI device drivers included with your system. These device drivers are designed to work with the Adaptec AIC-7899 Ultra 160/m SCSI-3 controller on the system board. Each channel of the AIC-7899 supports up to eight internal SCSI hard drives via SCSI backplane boards.
If you are using an optional RAID controller, see your RAID controller documentation for information on installing your SCSI device drivers.
For instructions on installing SCSI hardware devices such as hard drives, tape drives, or CD-ROM drives, see "Installing a Drive in the Peripheral Bay" in the Installation and Troubleshooting Guide. After the SCSI devices are installed, install and configure any SCSI device drivers to enable them to communicate with your operating system.
SCSI device drivers are provided for the following operating systems:
See "Using the Dell OpenManage Server Assistant CD" for instructions on creating a diskette of drivers for your operating system. For instructions on configuring the SCSI device drivers, see the documentation that came with your operating system. You may also need to use the SCSISelect utility, discussed in this section.
The BIOS for the integrated Adaptec AIC-7899 SCSI controller includes the menu-driven SCSISelect configuration utility, which allows you to change SCSI controller settings without opening the system. SCSISelect also contains SCSI disk utilities that let you low-level format or verify the disk media of your SCSI hard drives.
You can start the SCSISelect utility by pressing <Ctrl><a> when the following prompt appears briefly during start-up:
Press <CTRL><A> for SCSISelect™ Utility!
The first menu displays the Configure/View Host Adapter Settings and SCSI Disk Utilities options.
SCSISelect uses menus to list options that you can select. To select an option, press the up- and down-arrow keys to move the cursor to the option; then press <Enter>.
In some cases, selecting an option displays another menu. You can return to the previous menu at any time by pressing <Esc>. To restore the original SCSISelect default values, press <F6>.
Default settings for the integrated AIC-7899 SCSI controller are shown in Table C-1. These default settings are appropriate for most PCI systems. Run SCSISelect only if you need to change any of the default settings.
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NOTE: To change the configuration settings, you must run the SCSISelect utility. |
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NOTE: If the host adapter does not control the bootable hard drive, you may want to disable its BIOS. |
For situations in which you might want or need to change the settings, see the description of each setting in the following subsections. To change any of the default settings or to format or verify a disk, see "Using the SCSI Disk Utilities."
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Setting |
Default |
|---|---|
SCSI Bus Interface Definitions: | |
Host Adapter SCSI ID | 7 |
SCSI Parity Checking | Enabled |
Host Adapter SCSI Termination | Enabled or Automatic |
Boot Device Options: | |
Boot Channel | A First |
Boot SCSI ID | 0 |
Boot LUN Number | 0 |
SCSI Device/Configuration: | |
Sync Transfer Rate MB/Sec | 160 |
Initiate Wide Negotiation | Yes (Enabled) |
Enable Disconnection | Yes (Enabled) |
Send Start Unit Command | Yes (Enabled) |
Enable Write Back Cache | Yes or N/C |
BIOS Multiple LUN Support | No (Enabled) |
Include in BIOS Scan | Yes (Enabled) |
Advanced Configuration: | |
Reset SCSI Bus at IC Initialization | Enabled |
Display <Ctrl><a> Message During BIOS Initialization | Enabled |
Extended BIOS Translation For DOS Drivers > 1 GB | Enabled |
Silent/Verbose Mode | Verbose |
Host Adapter BIOS | Enabled |
Domain Validation | Enabled |
Support Removable Disks Under BIOS As Fixed Disks | Boot Only |
BIOS Support For Bootable CD-ROM | Enabled |
BIOS Support For Int 13 Extensions | Enabled |
Support For Ultra SCSI Speed | Enabled |
NOTE: For the full name of an abbreviation or acronym used in this table, see the "Glossary." | |
The basic host adapter settings are the SCSISelect settings most likely to require modification:
The boot device options allow you to specify the device from which to boot your system:
The SCSI device/configuration settings allow you to configure certain parameters for each device on the SCSI bus. To configure a specific device, you must know the SCSI ID assigned to that device. If you are not sure of the SCSI ID, see "Using the SCSI Disk Utilities."
The AIC-7899 host adapter supports rates up to 160 megabytes per second (MB/sec). The default for the AIC-7899 host adapter is 160 MB/sec.
If the host adapter is set to not negotiate for synchronous data transfer, the maximum synchronous transfer rate is the maximum rate that the host adapter accepts from the device during negotiation. (This setting is standard SCSI protocol.)
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NOTE: Some 8-bit SCSI devices may have trouble handling wide negotiation, which may result in erratic behavior or a hang condition. For these devices, set Initiate Wide Negotiation to No. |
When this option is set to Yes, the host adapter attempts 16-bit data transfer. When this option is set to No, 8-bit data transfer is used unless the SCSI device itself requests wide negotiation. The effective transfer rate is doubled when 16-bit data transfer is used because the data path for wide SCSI is twice the size of normal 8-bit SCSI.
Leave Enable Disconnection set to Yes if two or more SCSI devices are connected to the host adapter. This optimizes SCSI bus performance. If only one SCSI device is connected to the host adapter, set Enable Disconnection to No to achieve slightly better performance.
Setting this option to Yes reduces the load on your system's power supply by allowing the host adapter to start SCSI devices one at a time when you boot your system. When this option is set to No, the devices are allowed to start at the same time. Most devices require you to set a jumper before they can respond to this command.
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NOTE: For many devices, if Send Start Unit Command is set to Yes, the boot routine time will vary depending on how long it takes each drive to start. |
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NOTE: The setting for BIOS Multiple LUN Support must be No or Enabled (default) if a tape autoloader is connected. |
The advanced host adapter settings should not be changed unless absolutely necessary. These values are set by Dell, and changing them may cause conflicts with the SCSI devices.
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NOTICE: Back up your hard drive before you change the translation scheme. All data is erased when you change from one translation scheme to another. |
The standard translation scheme for SCSI host adapters provides a maximum accessible capacity of 1 GB. To support hard drives larger than 1 GB, the 78xx series host adapters include an extended translation scheme that supports hard drives as large as 8 GB, with a maximum partition size of 2 GB under the DOS operating system.
It is not necessary to enable the Extended BIOS Translation setting if you are using another operating system, such as Novell NetWare.
When you partition a hard drive larger than 1 GB, use the MS-DOS® fdisk utility as you normally would. Because the cylinder size increases to 8 MB under extended translation, the partition size you choose must be a multiple of 8 MB. If you request a size that is not a multiple of 8 MB, fdisk rounds up to the nearest whole multiple of 8 MB.
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NOTE: Several SCSISelect options are not valid unless the host adapter BIOS is enabled. |
If you are booting from a SCSI hard drive connected to the host adapter, the BIOS must be enabled. You should disable the host adapter BIOS if the peripherals on the SCSI bus (for example, CD-ROM drives) are all controlled by device drivers and do not need the BIOS.
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NOTICE: If a removable-media SCSI device is controlled by the host adapter BIOS, do not remove the media while the drive is on or you may lose data. If you want to be able to remove media while the drive is on, install your removable-media device driver and set this option to Disabled. |
To access the SCSI disk utilities, select SCSI Disk Utilities from the menu that appears when you start SCSISelect. When the option is selected, SCSISelect immediately scans the SCSI bus (to determine the devices installed) and displays a list of all SCSI IDs and the device assigned to each ID.
When you select a specific ID and device, a menu appears, displaying the Format Disk and Verify Disk Media options.
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NOTICE: The Format Disk option destroys all data on the hard drive. |
To exit SCSISelect, press <Esc> until a message prompts you to exit. (If you changed any 78xx series host adapter settings, you are prompted to save the changes before you exit.) At the prompt, select Yes to exit, and then press any key to reboot the system. Any changes that you made in SCSISelect take effect after the system boots. (You can select No at the prompt if you are not ready to exit SCSISelect.)
Any error that occurs while the driver is initializing prevents it from loading. If an error does occur, the driver causes the system to beep and then display the following numbered error message:
xxx message
The xxx indicates the error code and message is a line of text describing the error. The error codes are divided into three categories:
Specific error codes, such as those in the following subsections, appear only if you have installed the host adapters and drivers that generate them.
The following error codes alert you to error conditions caused by factors not related to the host adapter:
000 Failed ParseDriverParameters call
A call to NetWare's ParseDriverParameters routine has failed for some unknown reason. The command line contains errors, or you pressed <Esc> at the port or slot prompt.
001 Unable to reserve hardware, possible conflict
The driver failed in its attempt to reserve the host adapter's hardware settings (that is, direct memory access [DMA] and interrupt request [IRQ] settings). Another card in your system may be causing a conflict with the host adapter.
002 NetWare rejected card Failed AddDiskSystem call
The driver failed in its attempt to register the host adapter with NetWare. The file server may not have enough memory.
003 Invalid command line option entered > option
An invalid option was entered on the command line. The invalid option that was entered is also displayed.
004 Invalid command line, please enter correctly
The driver was unable to understand the command line options that you entered. Be sure that you have entered these options correctly.
The following error codes alert you to error conditions caused by factors related to the host adapter:
200 No host adapter found for this driver to register
No Adaptec 78xx host adapter was found in your system for the driver to register. Be sure that the host adapter is properly configured and properly seated in the slot.
203 Invalid 'device' setting
You have entered an invalid slot setting on the command line. You can only enter slot numbers for valid host adapters. If you load without the slot option, you will be prompted to enter a valid value.
204 Invalid 'verbose' setting, use 'y'
You can only enter y for this option (verbose=y).
205 Invalid 'removable' setting, use 'off'
You can only enter off for this option (removable=off).
206 Invalid 'fixed_disk' setting, use 'off'
You can only enter off for this option (fixed_disk=off).
208 SCSI present but not enabled/configured for PCI
A host adapter is present, but its bus or device entry has not been enabled.