PERC3/Di failure workaround hypothesis

[Matt Domsch]

On Mon, Apr 26, 2004 at 02:15:02PM -0500, Matt Domsch wrote:
> We are continuing to search for the root cause to the problem, and
> will update the list when we can.


We believe we have root cause to the SCSI command timeouts seen with
the PERC3/Di, related to how the RAID controller firmware handles
read and write caching.  To be certain that this is the *only*
problem, we ask you to do the following, and to report back to the
list success (i.e. you no longer see the SCSI mid-layer time out
commands, the system runs as expected), or failure (you still see
command timeouts).  If the latter occurs, then there is a secondary
problem that we'll need additional details from you to help debug.

Until further notice, please do the following.  In afacli, set the
container cache settings to:

Read Cache Setting	 : DISABLE
Write Cache Setting	 : DISABLE
Write Cache Status	 : Inactive, cache disabled.

This can be done through afacli with the following commands:

# afacli
> open afa0
> container set cache /read_cache_enable=FALSE /write_cache_enable=FALSE 0
> container show cache 0

Repeat for each container, incrementing from 0, and for each
aacraid-handled controller, incrementing from afa0.  A reboot is not
necessary.  

The latest version of afacli is available at
ftp://ftp.us.dell.com/scsi-raid/afa-apps-snmp.2806076-A02.tar.gz
and includes afaapps-2.8-0.i386.rpm



Thanks for your patience as we continue to investigate and correct this issue.
Matt


-- 
Matt Domsch
Sr. Software Engineer, Lead Engineer
Dell Linux Solutions linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux
Linux on Dell mailing lists @ http://lists.us.dell.com
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