[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: Enterprise 450 UltraSparc II



Yes, it definitely has to do with how the controllers are detected.  The
PCI SCSI controller cards are detected first and the onboard controller
is detected last.

I just tried moving the slots, but this was not possible due to the way
the support brackets are aligned.  So I thought I could take all of the
drives off of the onboard controller and just use 16 slots on the
controller cards.  This caused OpenBoot to fail due to the fact that it
couldn't find any drives installed on the onboard controller.  Running
boot disk4:a was returning an error about the boot record on the drive,
and the numbering scheme within OpenBoot was incorrect.  

If the onboard controller contains 4 disks, then it boots up fine.  I
don't have 20 hard drives at the moment, so I can't fill all of the
slots and tweak the fstab settings to match what Debian will show.  If I
were to install Debian on Disk #4 (Debian detects as /dev/sda), and then
fill the onboard controller's slots with other drives, it would work.
The problems would start when adding more drives to the second SCSI
controller card, since it gets detected before the onboard controller,
it would skew all of the drive letters by the total number of drives
added.

I know this is confusing.  It's hard to explain the issue in an email.
I appreciate everyone's input.

Mike 

On Thu, 2004-05-20 at 12:47 -0400, Mike Edwards wrote:
> I believe it has to do with the order the controllers are detected in.
> If you're concerned, perhaps changing the slots the controllers use would
> help.
> 
> 
> On Wed, May 19, 2004 at 04:41:54PM -0400, Mike Artis said:
> > Date: Wed, 19 May 2004 16:41:54 -0400
> > From: Mike Artis <martis@cavtel.net>
> > To: debian-sparc@lists.debian.org
> > Subject: Enterprise 450 UltraSparc II
> > X-Mailer: Ximian Evolution 1.5.7 
> > X-Spam-Status: No, hits=0.0 required=4.0 tests=none autolearn=ham version=2.60
> > X-Spam-Level: 
> > 
> > I am trying to install Debian 3.0 r2 on an Enterprise 450 UltraSparc II.
> > My server has a total of 12 hard drives installed.  Here is the layout
> > of the disks.  These numbers reflect what the system should see them as
> > after installation.
> > 
> >         Onboard SCSI controller (holds 4 drives):
> >                 Disks 0-3
> > 
> >         SCSI controller card (holds 8 drives):
> >                 Disks 4-11
> > 
> > 	SCSI controller card (holds 8 drives):
> > 		No Disks (room for growth)
> > 
> > My problem is that during and after installation, Debian reports the
> > drive order incorrectly.  It is reporting disk #4 (the first slot on the
> > first controller card) as /dev/sda instead of disk #0 as /dev/sda.  This
> > setup worked correctly in Solaris 9, and works fine if I only have 4
> > disks in place in the onboard SCSI controller.  As soon as drives get
> > added to the controller cards, they are recognized first. OpenBoot
> > always reports the drive order correctly.
> > 
> > Has anyone ever seen this?  I've searched the list archives but came up
> > empty handed.  I did however see a lot of successful reports with the
> > E450 and Debian.  Any insight would be greatly appreciated.
> > 
> > Thanks,
> > Mike
> 
> -- 
> Mike Edwards <sauron@psychology.rutgers.edu>
> System Administrator
> Psychology Department, Rutgers University, Newark campus
> 973-353-5440 x246



Reply to: