IBM Netfinity 3000 with AHA-2940 Ultra SCSI Card

[Pete Jewell]

Hi

I was wondering if anyone out there with similar hardware to the above
had come across the following problems?

We have a customer who has approximately 80 stores running IBM Netfinity
3000 systems as the server for our D3 based Point of Sale application. 
They do nightly automated backups onto DAT tapes via the Adaptec
AHA-2940 Ultra SCSI card.

On a regular basis (ie, about 1 store per day, on average) we get errors
from the backup which manifest themselves as scsi errors in the system
log (/var/log/messages).

A recent incident is shown below -

Oct 22 02:10:26 Bath kernel: st0: Error with sense data: extra data not
valid Current error st09:00: sense key Medium Error
Oct 22 02:10:26 Bath kernel: Additional sense indicates Write append
position error
Oct 22 02:13:03 Bath kernel: st0: Error with sense data: extra data not
valid Current error st09:00: sense key Medium Error
Oct 22 02:13:03 Bath kernel: Additional sense indicates Sequential
positioning error
Oct 22 02:17:21 Bath kernel: st0: Error with sense data: Current error
st09:00:sense key Medium Error
Oct 22 02:17:21 Bath kernel: Additional sense indicates Write append
position error

The output of /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0 for the above site follows - 

Compile Options:
  AIC7XXX_RESET_DELAY     : 15
  AIC7XXX_TAGGED_QUEUEING : Adapter Support Enabled
                              Check below to see which
                              devices use tagged queueing
  AIC7XXX_PAGE_ENABLE     : Enabled (This is no longer an option)
  AIC7XXX_PROC_STATS      : Disabled

Adapter Configuration:
           SCSI Adapter: Adaptec AHA-294X Ultra SCSI host adapter
                           Ultra Wide Controller
    PCI MMAPed I/O Base: 0xf3eff000
 Adapter SEEPROM Config: SEEPROM found and used.
      Adaptec SCSI BIOS: Enabled
                    IRQ: 10
                   SCBs: Active 0, Max Active 2,
                         Allocated 15, HW 16, Page 255
             Interrupts: 9356306
      BIOS Control Word: 0x18b4
   Adapter Control Word: 0x00df
   Extended Translation: Enabled
Disconnect Enable Flags: 0xffff
     Ultra Enable Flags: 0x0001
 Tag Queue Enable Flags: 0x0000
Ordered Queue Tag Flags: 0x0000
Default Tag Queue Depth: 8
    Tagged Queue By Device array for aic7xxx host instance 0:
      {255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255}
    Actual queue depth per device for aic7xxx host instance 0:
      {1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1}

Statistics:

(scsi0:0:0:0)
  Device using Wide/Sync transfers at
  40.0 MByte/sec, offset 8
    Device Negotiation Settings
        Period Offset Bus Width
User       012    008        1
Goal       012    008        1
Current    012    008        1
    Total transfers 7664238 (3595583 read;4068655 written)
      blks(512) rd=103321229; blks(512) wr=29159804

(scsi0:0:5:0)
  Device using Narrow/Sync transfers at
  6.67 MByte/sec, offset 15
    Device Negotiation Settings
        Period Offset Bus Width
User       012    008        1
Goal       012    015        0
Current    032    015        0
    Total transfers 1689886 (856147 read;833739 written)
      blks(512) rd=1109872; blks(512) wr=10790104

The output of /proc/scsi/scsi for the above site follows - 

Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: IBM-PCCO Model: DDRS-34560W   !# Rev: S97B
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 05 Lun: 00
  Vendor: ARCHIVE  Model: Python 04106-XXX Rev: 727A
  Type:   Sequential-Access                ANSI SCSI revision: 02


The version of the kernel in use is 2.0.36 - there have been no
modifications to the software running on these systems, ie, they are as
found on the RedHat 5.2 CD-ROM.

I'd love to suggest to the customer that they upgrade to a later kernel,
however, the D3 package we use is only qualified for RedHat 5.2
(although that will soon change) - coupled with the logistical nightmare
of upgrading all 80 servers (they're spread ALL over the UK).

Any war stories/ideas greatly appreciated.

Pete Jewell
Analyst Programmer
Example Systems Ltd


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