I have a dell powervault 650 with a QLA22 Qlogic host adapter card. Dell's documentation on this junk is shitty. How do you get into the 650 to control the arrays? Anytime I try to do any kind of disk intialization from the qlogics bios all I get is a scsi command error.

Google 'nordahl boot disk' and download the CD image. Boot from that and watch the console to see which SCSI driver it uses to mount the drives. From there you should be able to match up the right driver from Dell's list. And then the hunt through their wonderful support site can begin. I do not envy your headache.

NSFP

-Spike

The adapter card is installed properly and the bios is working fine with it. It even detects the SAN drives in Windows...but when in the bios if I try to do ANYTHING to the drives I get a scsi command error...in windows if I try to do anything to the drives it just locks and gives me an error in the same amount of time as the bios program does. I have researched the HELL out of the dell website for a powervault 650 and the install instructions say they list how to setup containers, but that part is missing...i cannot find anything. I need to know:
1. why am I getting a scsi command error?
2. HOW IN THE HELL do I setup raid arrays??? do I have to connect a serial cable to the console port on the back of the 650?

The few times I have run into this error is when the incorrect firmware was flashed, or the firmware was corrupted. The Dell SCSI (Promise) controllers are notorious for these kind of problems. To solve the SCSI command error, check the firmware of the BIOS, backplane, and disks themselves.

If the SCSI BIOS is loading, then the card is fine. You do not need to plug into the RS232 port to create an array, that is done in the SCSI BIOS itself. You will need to determine what type of array do you want (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10), what size, hot spares....etc. What is the host machine that you are plugging the SAN into, also is it possible the power vault is a DAS?

This gets pretty in depth, ill PM my cell number if you want to talk about it more.

THe powervault is not a direct attached storage...well it's only hooked to one host, but is capable of much more.. a disk array processor controler (why is it that fibre tends to have more freaking acroynms than any other technology)

quote:

You do not need to plug into the RS232 port to create an array, that is done in the SCSI BIOS itself. You will need to determine what type of array do you want (RAID 0, 1, 5, 10), what size, hot spares....etc. What is the host machine that you are plugging the SAN into, also is it possible the power vault is a DAS?

THe Perc 3 controlers I have in all of the scsi boxes which use standard ultra 160 scsi work fine with internal backplane drives and external powervault 210 SCSI drives.

THe powervault 650 as you know is a fibre enclosure with raid controllers. What I am not understanding is the perc 3 controllers in the host machine ACTUALLY do raid themselves, but in the fibre array the powervault 650 does the raid itself while the qlogic host adapter card is nothing more than an interface into the array. So how can I setup raid arrays through the qlogic fibre adapter card bios when it is not even doing the array, the fibre enclosure is??????

I guess I am going to need your cell phone number, I can say that anything that is not fibre works fine, the only problems I am having is with the fibre enclosure.


and yes the qlogic adapter card will load it's bios .... another strange thing if I hook the host computer up to the SP (storage processor) DB9 connection the card finds no drives but one container in the bios and nothing when in windows. If I hook the host adapter card to the LCC (LINK controler card) db9 connection, also on the back of the DPE (drive processing enclosure) I can 'see' all of the individual drives in the host adapter card's bios and in windows.

if I am messing with each individual drive, or the container in the host adapter card's bios I get a scsi command error.....

I am going to throw another host adapter card in there real quick. I do know that the raid 5 container is corrupt and I need to make a new one, but HOW??? the host adapter card's bios will not let me create a container in the drive processing enclosure card's setup

yup....new card does the same thing..I wonder if it's because the array is fuct...


btw Robin, if possible use Yahoo chat, much easier, I am d3structed

I dont have Yahoo, but I have MSN

rpe@san.rr.com

I just got off the phone with Dell, they said in order to configure the DPE I have to have an application called data supervisor which was provided with the powervault 650 when purchased. Unfortuantly Dell doesn't have data supervisor any more and supossedly the company that made it is no more.....UGH!!!

Good ol Dell.............

but topologically speaking it is just an array of disks, you should be able to do something with it...........ill look and see if I have anything resembling data supervisor.

quote:

but topologically speaking it is just an array of disks, you should be able to do something with it...........ill look and see if I have anything resembling data supervisor.

not just an array of disks, but an array of disks controled by a RAID controler with no pc interface, only a console connection on the back.

DELL

Just my opinion... but this isn't the BBQ pit so I won't say anymore