SCSI errors with Adaptec 2200S RAID

[Scott Long]

Andre Albsmeier wrote:

> On Tue, 03-Aug-2004 at 23:31:52 -0400, up at 3.am wrote:
> 
>>Please cc replies directly to me, as I am not subscribed to the lists.
>>
>>With some help from here, I was able to get this RAID card to see our
>>external DLT (QUANTUM 4000) SCSI tape drive by installing the aacp (pass
>>through) driver in addition to the aac driver.  camcontrol now works, as
>>do basic mt commands and amcheck (amanda check).
>>
>>However, (amanda) dumps either hang, fail completely or fail after
>>transfering very little data.  On the console, I see:
>>
>>(sa0:aacp1:0:4:0): READ(06). CDB8 0 0 0 20 0 0
>>(sa0:aacp1:0:4:0): NO SENSE ILI (length mismatch): -24576 csi:0,0,0,1
>>
>>At this point the device is completely unresponsive, and the only way to
>>get the system to see it again is to reboot the whole server.  I tried
>>ordering a 3 ft cable, thinking I was pushing my luck with the 6 ft (I've
>>had this problem with SCSI cables in the past), but the problem persists.
>>
>>The same drive (which has an active terminator) has been working fine for
>>years on a different box using an Intel L440GX+ MB's on-board SCSI port.
>>
>>Once again, any helpful replies are greatly appreciated!
> 
> 
> Are you sure you are running a recent fw on your DLT4k? My DLTs
> used to behave badly with early fw revisions. Check out
> 
> http://www.quantum.com/am/service_support/downloads/software/dlt4000.htm
> 
> You can upgrade it by tape or use my software for updating the fw of
> SCSI devices on FreeBSD.
> 
> 	-Andre
> 

This sounds like excellent advice.  Note that the error messages that
you are seeing are coming from the Adaptec firmware, not FreeBSD or the
aac driver.  Also, the aacp device and backing firmware support are
really just hacks that exist to allow cdroms to be booted and drives to
be flashed with new firmware.  I've never heard of anyone running a tape
drive in this fashion, so it will be quite interesting to see if newer
firmware helps.

Scott