A3500 FAQ
Q: What version of RM6 will be supported on the A3500???
A : Version 6.1.1 Update 1
Q: How about the firmware level???
A: 2.5.2.11
Q: What are the drive capacity with the A3500 at FCS???
A: 9 and 18gb 7200 rpm drives.
Q: What kind of cabinet will this A3500 be in????
A: The 72 inch tall, 24 inch wide, 36.5 inches deep delorian rack.
Q: When I look inside the cabinet, I only see one power sequencer, is there
only one????
A: No, the second one is under the last tray.
Q: How does RM6 "see" this sonoma configuration???
A: RM6 will "see" this as TWO sonoma's.
Q: Is RM6 gonna work the same way as with the 56-inch rack version????
A: Yes, and all the way down to the CLI's.
Q: How is the A3500 wired up???
A: go to the following URL...http://thedance.ebay/sonoma/hardware.html
and bring up the HW configuration guide, all configs are in there.
Q: I did, still don't quite understand????
A: okay, there are two sets of A3000 sonona controllers in 2x7 config.
Each controller will own 1/2 the total number of disks in the cabinet.
For example, if we use the A3500 with the 18gb drives, there will be
84 drives that would be available in the A3500. Each controller would
own 42 of them.
As for the wiring, two of the trays would be "daisy-chained" and three
trays would be in a "split bus" config. The bottom trays in the cabinet
would be "split bussed" and the trays on top would be daisy-chained.
Q: Are we gonna use the tobasco trays in the A3500???
A: no, we will be using the D1000's.
Q: Can I use SEVM
A: Yes
Q: Can I use SDS??
A: yes
Q: What versions of the A3500 do we have???
A: 1x5, 2x7, 3x15 and a sonoma lite configuration.
Q: Can I mix 9 and 18gb 1" high drives in the same D1000's????
A: yes, but you should have them in seperate luns.
Q: Where can I get support config info for the A3500??
A: Refer to this web page and look at the Reference Guide.
Q: How are the drives in the D1000's targeted????
A: If you have the 12 drives version, and going from left to right it would go
as follows: 0,1,2,3,4,5,8,9,10,11,12,13
If you have the 8 drive D1000 version, it would go as follows:
0,1,2,3,8,9,10,11
Note, these are pre-targeted!!!!!
Q: What's the maximum number of LUNs supported on the A3500????
A: RM6 will support upto 16 LUNs, if you need more, use VM.
Q: Can I upgrade my A3000 to an A3500???
A: Yes, check out the Quick Reference Guide on this page....
Q: I noticed that the FW on my drives are at two different levels, 1505 and 1705, can anyone
explain this????
A: The change between 1505 and 1705 was as follows:
In the Unipack environment there is no need for delay spin.
We found in 1505 code level that Fujitsu had implemented a
delay spin in firmware instead of using the state of the delay
motor start pin at the SCA-II connector interface.
This means that the drive will delay motor start all the time.
Our specification requires the drive to status the state of the
interface and implement the appropiate Motor Spin implementation
based on this status.
Therefore, code 1705 corrected this oversight. We observe this as
a very low exposure even in the Unipack environment. The code implementation
was a phase-in with no need to upgrade existing code levels in the field.
Q; What is the power cord used with the A3500???
A: NEMA L6-30
Q: Do we have any delorian rack specs????
A: http://thedance.ebay/cabinets/storedge.html and click on the 804-3067 link.
Q: Do we have any information on the Delorian rack surge current???
A: I have the Symbios spec. It says 42 amps at 230VAC and 25 degrees
C. It was measured closer to 60 amps, but at 264VAC. There are two
such power supplies in a Sonoma, so the values double for the
final product. Consider these as "worst case" values. That is
what was tested for. They are not "typical.
Q: What are the NVRAM differences between the A3000 and the A3500???
A: Here goes:
A3000 product A3500 product
Sonoma/Tabasco in 56" rack Sonoma/Dilbert in 72" rack
============================= ==============================
Controller FRU: 540-3600-xx 540-3083-xx
LUN Label*: RSM Array 2000 StorEdge A3000
SEN polling: Enable SEN polling by default Disable SEN polling by default
Xfer rate: drive side 20MB transfer rate drive side 40MB transfer rate
SES support: No SES support Enable SES interface support
* The LUN label is visible through the solaris format command.
1. When upgrading SW in the StorEdge A3000/A3500 product, make sure
system to be upgraded is stable and all attached LUNs are in "OPTIMAL"
state. Fix any hardware problems first. Since upgarde requires boot -r.
Failed HW may not be recognized after a system boot -r.
A controller module with a failed controller board will be recognized as
a single controller system after a boot -r. To recover from it will require
access through the controller serial port and to wipe out all the module
configurations.
2. Make sure all the HW Raid modules, StorEdge A1000, A3000 or A3500, in the
system has the proper FW loaded to match with the Raid Manger SW in the
host system. Un-matched SW/FW can cause anomolies.
Sun StorEdge Raid
Manager Version Controller FW level
------------------ -------------------
6.0 2.4.1d
6.1 2.04.04.01
6.1.1 2.05.02.09 (Minimum level for StorEdge A1000)
6.1.1 Update 1 2.05.02.11 (Minimum level for StorEdge A3500)
Q: Can you clear up what build goes with what CD release of RM6.
A: CD label says "RM6.1.1". The actual build is RM6.1.1_4.
CD label says "RM6.1.1 Update 1". The actural build is RM6.1.1_11
Q: What's the deal on the 18gb 10K rpm drives????
A: These drives will be supported with the 1x5, 2x7's and 3x15 configuration.
As well as requiring 6.1.1 Update 1 of RM6 and fw 2.5.2.11 on the controllers.
With the introduction of the 18gb 10K drives, the 18gb 7200 rpm drives will be
EOL'd from the A3500 product line. These drives will not be supported on the
A3000 product line.
Q: Are the A3500's supported on the E6000 that are running with the 336mhz cpu's???
A: yes
Q: Can I use patch 106513-01 with my A3500???
A: Yes, this is fimrware 2.5.2.14. You can use this firmware as long as you
use it with RM6 6.1.1 Update 1. This fw is also supported on the A3000/A1000.
Q: Does FW 2.5.2.14 fix the LED bug on A3500, bugID 4164075????
A: RM 6.22 is the committment for the fix.
Q: Is the geometry and capacity identical in both the Seagate and Fujitsu 9.1GB
disks for the Sonoma? Our customer heard a rumour that mixing these drives
(which have the same FRU#) could be the "smoking gun".
I've read Bug 4086222 which implies that after the 4.2GB inconsistencies were
discovered Engineering has addressed the problem. Just a sanity check!
A: Yes, we adjust the mode page 0x03 and 0x04 drive geometry pages so they appear
identical. By the way, the Sonoma in insensitive to the mode page geometries.
It looks at the read capacity size.
Q: HAC with a Seagate 2.1GB drive which is producing lots of
unrecoverable media errors, but only for 6 blocks (1816352,
1816360, 1816472, 1816584, 2050216, 2050312). Instead of
just replacing the drive, he would like to manually add these
blocks to the defect list. How does one do this? I noticed
the "repair" command under format which the man page says
repair Repair a specific block on the disk.
Will this get these blocks marked defective and reassigned?
A: You have it all figured out correctly.
Note:Later model drives will actually mark unrecoverable defects and automatically
repair themselves when you write to the same blocks by the way.
Q: Are there any restrictions or guidelines as far as doing RM6 CLI's????
A: If you are running the 02.04.xx.xx firmware on the controllers, you are
only able to create *at most* 3 LUNs in parrallel per controller. The
well know having at least 1 single configured OPTIMAL LUN still applies
before any parrallelism can be added. So after creating LUN 0 (or the
first LUN) and it is completed and OPTIMAL, up to 3 LUN creations per
controller can be issued to the background from the CLI. So a total of
6 can be creating in parrallel at any one time (per module).
If you are running the 02.05.xx.xx firmware the limitation of
parrallelism is increased to 7 per controller. Again, after the first
LUN is created and OPTIMAL. So for 02.05.xx.xx controllers you can have
up to 7 LUNs being created in parrallel per controller. So a total of
14 LUNs can be created in parrallel at any one time (per module) w/
16 LUN support enabled of course.
Q: What's the scoop on A3500's and E450's???
A: The limit is two A3500s with direct connections,
or four A3500s with two of them daisy-chained.
Q: Why does it take so long to upgrade the fw on the drives with the A3500???
A: It's an architectural limitation. First, Symbios injects a 60 sec.
delay for each disk upgraded beyond the actual upgrade time which hurts.
This issue is being addressed in the next controller firmware upgrade.
Next, the SD driver and RAID controller only support 1 command at a time.
The program attempts to bypass this issue by using BOTH controllers; but it's only
partially successful. The hitch is that if a drive has been assigned
to a controller, only that one can talk to it! Thus, it's a rather
serial process...
Q: Is the A3500 sonoma-lite supported with SC2.1 yet???
A: Yes.
Q: I have some questions about Differential SCSI cable for A3500 w/cluster config,
What is the real length of A3500 SCSI cable for the host connection???
A: I checked the same cable length question couple of years ago with the cable
Engineer at that time. The story was that this cable was initially released
as actual 12-meter cables and later the cable length was changed to 10 meters
due to some electrical safety code which I don't know the detail of it. The
description of this cable was not changed from 12m to 10m when the actual
cable length was shortened. The A3500 ship with the same 10m cable, does not
matter whether it is for cluster or not.
Q: In the case of daisy-chaned-A3500, what SCSI cable is needed?
A: The criteria for differential SCSI cable is to make sure the total SCSI bus
length is not more than 25 meters. Assume 0.1 meter internal length in the
HBA and A3500 so the total internal cable length is 0.4 meter for a daisy
chained cluster A3500. This leaves 24.6m for external cable length and to
leave some room for tolerance the external cable length should not exceed
24m. You can order any combinations of cables, 8m+8m+8m or 8m+6m+8m, etc.
Just make sure the total cable length is not more than 24 meters. I believe
we have a selection of differential SCSI cables 2m, 4m, 6m, 8m and 10m in
length.
Q: What is the deal with RM 6.1.1 Update 1 and patch 106513????
A: The 2.5.2.14 firmware works on both A3000 and A3500. Its primary benefit is for
the dilbert trays in the A3500 or A1000. You do not need 106513-03 unless you
have a tx chip, which you don't. Boards containing tx chips are only shipping
as part of new factory A3x00 scsi shipments as of July 2x. The software that
comes with these boards is RM 6.1.1 update 2 which has patch 106513-03
pre-applied. FRU's only have zx chips.
Q: Is path 106513-03 compatible with the "older" controller boards???
A: Yes, patch 106513-03 is compatible with old, existing and new boards.
Q: Is the FW 2.5.2_14 that comes with 106513-02 not supported on the
A3000's, or Can I install that on A3000 ?
A: Patch 106513 is backward compatible. You can install it on A3000.
You must make sure that you are running RM6.1.1 in the host.
Q: How can I tell if I have the TX chipset ?
A: Typically, you do not need to know whether the controller has
a TX or ZX chip on it. Release note is very clear on compatibility
issues. Please read that to get a more comprehensive view.
If you are running RM6.1.1 Update 1, your controllers have 2.5.2_X
firmware. New racks shipped from the factory during August and
September this year will likely contain the TX chip. But the
firmware that runs on those controller already is TX chip
compatible. You do not need to do any firmware upgrade/downgrade.
The RM6.1.1 Update 2 package shipped with these racks contain
the TX compatible firmware. It is there in case you have a need
to download firmware again to the board.
To tell the TX controller apart from the ZX, you need to look
at the part number on the label, the TX controller part
number is 375-0089-01