Hardware

o/s: Solaris 10 with patches up to date. LOM and system firmware at latest revisions.

Trying to get a 12 bay, Model 711 Sun External SCSI enclosure working properly.

Problem: When accessing any of the drives in the external enclosure seemingly random occurances of errors like this are being logged;

When connected to an add-in Sun PCI SCSI card in the system:

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Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/pci@5/SUNW,isptwo@4 (isp0):
Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc Target 15 reducing transfer rate
Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/pci@5/SUNW,isptwo@4/sd@f,0 (sd17):
Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc Error for Command: write(10) Error Level: Retryable
Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc scsi: Requested Block: 1671184 Error Block: 1671184
Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc scsi: Vendor: FUJITSU Serial Number: ANL3P5401M62
Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc scsi: Sense Key: Aborted Command
Jun 7 10:26:02 umoc scsi: ASC: 0x47 (scsi parity error), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x0
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Or like these, when connected to the system's built-in external SCSI controller connector:

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Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1 (glm1):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Target 4 reducing sync. transfer rate
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1/sd@4,0 (sd20):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Error for Command: write Error Level: Retryable
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Requested Block: 19251 Error Block: 19251
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Vendor: SEAGATE Serial Number: 0118T2EZTB
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Sense Key: Aborted Command
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: ASC: 0x47 (scsi parity error), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x3
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1 (glm1):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Target 2 reducing sync. transfer rate
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1/sd@2,0 (sd18):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Error for Command: write Error Level: Retryable
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Requested Block: 1939 Error Block: 1939
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Vendor: SEAGATE Serial Number: LR347896
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Sense Key: Aborted Command
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: ASC: 0x47 (information unit iucrc error detected), ASCQ: 0x3, FRU: 0x3
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1 (glm1):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Target 5 reducing sync. transfer rate
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1/sd@5,0 (sd21):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Error for Command: write Error Level: Retryable
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Requested Block: 114794 Error Block: 114794
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Vendor: COMPAQ Serial Number: A001P43042G8
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Sense Key: Aborted Command
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: ASC: 0x47 (scsi parity error), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x0
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1 (glm1):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Target 11 reducing sync. transfer rate
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1/sd@b,0 (sd26):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Error for Command: write Error Level: Retryable
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Requested Block: 64579 Error Block: 64579
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Vendor: FUJITSU Serial Number: ANL3P5401M5P
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Sense Key: Aborted Command
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: ASC: 0x47 (scsi parity error), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x0
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1 (glm1):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Target 15 reducing sync. transfer rate
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1/sd@f,0 (sd30):
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc Error for Command: write Error Level: Retryable
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Requested Block: 42344 Error Block: 42344
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Vendor: FUJITSU Serial Number: ANL3P5401M62
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: Sense Key: Aborted Command
Jun 7 12:07:39 umoc scsi: ASC: 0x47 (scsi parity error), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x0
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1 (glm1):
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc Target 10 reducing sync. transfer rate
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/scsi@8,1/sd@a,0 (sd25):
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc Error for Command: write(10) Error Level: Retryable
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc scsi: Requested Block: 5688928 Error Block: 5688928
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc scsi: Vendor: FUJITSU Serial Number: 0019461797
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc scsi: Sense Key: Aborted Command
Jun 7 12:09:46 umoc scsi: ASC: 0x47 (scsi parity error), ASCQ: 0x0, FRU: 0x0
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These are being reported for any/all of the drives in the enclosure at different times. They seem to happen in sporadic bursts and then go away for a while (minutes to an hour or more). They only seem to be happening when I'm deliberately trying to stress the drives/bus with I/O activities. This is a new system (new for me) that I'm trying to get working. I noticed the problem happening sometimes initially when mounting filesystems from the drives in the enclosure.

If I take any of the same drives out of the enclosure individually and plug them them into the available 2nd drive bay in the host system instead I can NOT get any errors to occur with them - both with just trying to generate a lot of I/O to them and also by running a surface analysis on them with the system's format utility.

I tried installing an additional Sun PCI SCSI controller in the system, in it's one PCI expansion slot and then testing the 711 enclosure/drives off of that. No luck, same SCSI parity errors occuring on any/all of the drives in the enclosure at random times under load. Same as when the enclosure is connected to the system's built-in external SCSI connector.

I then took the same enclosure, drives and host attachment cable and connected them to another Netra system (a 4 processor model). I stress tested them there for several hours straight and was unable to produce a single SCSI error of any kind with them there. So it doesn't seem like there's a problem with the enclosure or drives or it's host attachment cable.

So it seems like the problem is specific to using this enclosure with my Netra T1 AC200 - whether it be connected to the built-in external SCSI controller or to an add-in SCSI controller in the PCI slot.

Oh, and I've also tried using a SUN SCSI terminator on the output connector of the 711 enclosure, even though it's my understanding that the 711 is self-terminating (unlike Arnold Schwarzenegar, ha ha!). That did not seem to make any difference in the problem.

Finally, another possibly (ir)relevant piece of information? With the add-in PCI SCSI controller I've tried, usually just once after the system has been booted (each time) and I begin to access the drives connected to it I see this message:

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Jun 7 10:22:25 umoc scsi: WARNING: /pci@1f,0/pci@1/pci@5/SUNW,isptwo@4/sd@f,0 (sd17):
Jun 7 10:22:25 umoc SCSI transport failed: reason 'unexpected_bus_free': retrying command
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I've scoured Sun's web sites for bug/update information which seems applicable to this problem but no luck. I've run out of ideas on how to isolate and correct this problem. Do any of you have anything else I can try or have you experienced this kind of thing before? Thanks MUCH for any and all responses.

-John
johnj@external.umass.edu

Message was edited by:
John-Amherst-MA

Message was edited by:
John-Amherst-MA