HELP w/ SCSI RAID !!!

[joinT]

Guys, I just got my 3rd scsi drive & am trying to setup my server.
But none of the drives are recognized/responding

I have a Mylex RAID card.
Installation Guide
DACCF user manual

I set the ID's on the SCSI drives & set active termination on the last one. It gives one of 2 errors.

SCSI device at Chn 0, Tgt 0(1-6) not responding!

or

DAC960 not responding - no drives installed.

Anyone have any ideas ??

 

[mastertech01]

Well thats pretty vague detail.. Is this an LVD controller, are you using LVD drives, do you have the IDs set on the drives themselves, and when you go into the controller bios, are the properly identified, each with the correct ID? Is your controller setup with an array manager software disk, and is the array setup already. Are you at the point of installing windows, and what version are you using? I am assuming Win2k, so in that case are you hitting F6 on initial boot of the Win2k installation and installing the controller Drivers? If it is accepting the driver, all the perameters are correctly set on the controller, you have all the drives on one cable on the Primary Channel, all IDs are properly set and termination is correct, array has been properly setup, then Win2k should do all the rest for you. Just from the description you give it sounds like the hardware is not quite configured correctly or one of the drives is not getting power or failing.

 

[joinT]

sorry, I'm a scsi newb & dunno what info you guys might need.

they are just 68pin drives, not LVD.
i set the ID's on the drives themselves.

I can't get into the controller BIOS, because it doesn't detect any drives

Yes, Win2K Advanced Server.

I have not tried loading any 3rd Party Drivers during install because
[*]A - The drives weren't detected, I figured something has gotta be done before install can continue
[*]B - proved that by trying to let it install & it just sits there.
[*]C - the "drivers" I downloaded from Mylex is just a single .exe file & I have no Idea how to install them.

LMK any other questions you may have

 

[mastertech01]

Well having never uses MYlex before Im winging it here.. just can go by my experience with Adaptec Raid. You should be able to access the Raid bios without any drives attached at all. But given the possibility that you can only acess via software array manager, then first you need to ensure that the card is seated properly, that you are using a good quality 68 pin cable, that the jumpers on the drives are all set properly (IE IDs,termination, motor delay, etc etc.. You can go to the manufacturer website for the drives and check for the correct jumper settings. 3 drives on one cable is a pretty heavy load so you may need to use a terminator on the end of the cable itself. The last drive on the cable of course at a minimum must be terminated and it must be on the last connector on the cable. I dont know how you would setup termination for the controller itself if you cant access the bios of the controller untill it has drives on it. Read the documentation closely to be sure of that. Ill try to find time to read it myself to help if I can. Basicly you need to have auto termination set on the controller, otherwise you will have to terminate each connector, and you dont want to do that. Did the controller come with an array setup disk? Boot to that disk and see if you can access the controller bios that way. Your card may have some kind of external way of doing these things but I doubt it. Get the basics first and work from there. Have you verified that all the drives get powerup and are spining? sometimes its easier to setup outside the case then move it all in when its going. That way you can see, touch, feel

 

[joinT]

whew, reading your posts is always hard

i dunno about motor delay, I set the ID's & Active Termination enabled on the last drive.
the end drive is IBM, the other 2 are Seagate.



<< a terminator on the end of the cable itself >>


Hmm, what if there's only 3 device connectors - how can I terminate it ?? I thought that Active Termination could do that.

Well, after it finishes saying that no drives are responding on any Chn or Tgt, then it says press Alt-M to Disable BIOS (or Enable if I've disabled it)
It's SUPPOSED to say press Alt-M to enter BIOS settings, but seems to only do that when the drives are setup properly



<< Did the controller come with an array setup disk? >>


I bought it here, just came with the card, maybe I can get him to send me the files from the disk

My main problem is i dunno JACK about SCSI :disgust:

 

[joinT]

Oh yea, just figured I should mention that I got this same string of &quot;errors&quot; when I didn't have any drives attached &amp; was booting after that to an IDE drive.

 

[mastertech01]

Well you definitely have to be able to setup the array..

That may be possible via the bios alone which would be nice compared to Adaptec.

Your exe file for the drivers should be just that,,execute the file and it will install the drivers on your hard drive, or a floppy disk. It should have instructions with it after you execute it,or you can go to the website and read how to execute the drivers to make a driver disk. Usually you just copy the files you extract to a bootable floppy.

For the most part it seems your configuration is correct, so I dont understand why its saying there is a problem unless more than one drive is terminated or one is failed.

You dont need to sweat SCSI as long as you follow SCSI rules.. its really pretty easy once you use it. However Raid is not exactly the ideal way to start out your learning process as it is much more complex in setup.

How about just putting one drive or two on the cable and maybe you can at least access the bios?

 

[mastertech01]

You may want to remove any IDE drives untill you get the SCSI straightened out.

 

[joinT]

No matter how many drives there are, still notices nothing.

 

[joinT]

the IDE drives are LONG gone. Just used to test the motherboard, etc.

 

[joinT]

Well, i removed all but the last one &amp; it said it couldn't find the boot partition (or something like that) while trying to setup Win2K AS. It said setup was checking hardware, but I'm afraid it's just gonna get stuck like last time

 

[mastertech01]

OK, just starting through the installation manual..it has an array manager disk and a configuration utility.. you need to get these.. should be downloadable..

 

[mastertech01]

Also states controller must have ram in the ram slot.

 

[joinT]

OK, i found the drivers on that .exe

Also, I left in 1 drive &amp; it didn't detect it, but Win2K AS setup has run further than I've seen it.
We'll see what happens

 

[joinT]

OK, I think it stopped again during Setup.

Gonna go try &amp; download those now.
There's a 4mb stick of ram in there

 

[mastertech01]

make sure you have the cable on the connector closest to the rear of the case.. that is the correct one for channel &quot;0&quot;

 

[joinT]

Yep, it says Chn 0 behind it too

that setup froze. i tried removing the jumper over active termination on the drive I left on the cable - we'll see what that does.....

edblor told me that I just need to set the active termination for the card, not drives.

oh - well, that didn't work.

 

[joinT]

OK, nothing has worked so far, but I'm sick of it for now.

I downloaded all the utilities &amp; drivers, but cuz I cut my floppy cable (trying to reduce amount of cable) my floppy isn't detected. Tomorrow I'll see what I can do with those files.

thanks for your help mastertech01 you da man !!

 

[mastertech01]

Read page 48 and up on that install manual..some good stuff there.

 

[mastertech01]

Well Im seeing that termination can be set for the channels on the card.. that would be for the unused channels.

 

[joinT]

I just noticed that too, but unfortunately mine is the 2 Chn version of the card. I don't see any jumpers that aren't already &quot;jumpered&quot; ie. there are 2 jumpers, but each only has 2 pins it's like either ON/oFF.
Also, the IBM hdd is getting really hot &amp; I'm gonna go out soon so I'm thinking of taking a break.

Thanks for all your help. I really need you here in Toronto

 

[mastertech01]

After reading through most of the install I can tell you that is one hell of a complex controller and you MUST read the instructions carefully..it has more jumpers on it than any I have ever used. Its imperative that you get the termination setup just as shown in the install manual.

 

[mastertech01]

Wish I could be there just to help out.. Well this is a job for superman or someone with Mylex experience.. Since the pics all show 3 channel its kind of confusing isnt it?

 

[mastertech01]

Good idea..take a break.. or you may end up wanting to break it!LOL

 

[joinT]

anybody else got any ideas ??

just got my KVM &amp; found out I bought a couple WRONG cables, ggrrrr.