FAQ: Server-Specific Tape Install/Setup Topics

Server 330 (PB0)

3.1 The on-board SCSI adapter does not detect any tape drives.

The external SCSI connection must be "enabled". The 330 PB0 is often shipped without the on-board adapter external connection enabled. During the system boot, select Configuration (F1) and enable the external SCSI connection for the on-board adapter.

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3.2 My Fast/Wide tape drive (e.g., M2488E1) is not detected by the Adaptec SCSI adapter.

The AIC7870.ADD device driver must be at the current level (preferably January 1998 or later). The older versions of this device driver (circa 1995) do not properly support external Fast/Wide sequential devices. To download the most current OS/2 version of AIC7870.ADD, you should go to the Adaptec web site (www.adaptec.com) and find their OS/2 device driver update area; the file to download is 7800OS2.EXE.

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3.3 The SCSI adapter sees my tape drive but OS/2 does not find it.

You will notice this behavior during CONFIG.SYS processing when the tape device driver reports that OS/2 presents only 1 sequential device (the 4mm on the RAID adapter). This is usually reported when there are multiple non-RAID adapters installed on the Server 330 PB0. You can do three things: (1) verify that there is not a conflict in the interrupt assignments among the various PCI adapters; (2) ensure that you have the latest version of the AIC7870.ADD device driver (dated January 1998 or later); and (3) confirm that the OS2SCSI.DMD file is dated 7-18-95 or later.

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3.4 The AIC7870.ADD driver is not loading

Some of the likely reasons why the AIC7870.ADD driver would not be loading are:
1. The Adaptec SCSI adapter has no SCSI devices attached to it which are powered on.

2. Something is wrong with the status of the SCSI chain -- there could be several causes: no SCSI termination; a bad SCSI cable; incomplete connection of a cable to a connector; etc.

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3.5 My system "hangs" when using SCSI tape drives.

On an IBM Server 330, the interrupt assignments are very important in order to avoid system "hangs". This problem is compounded by the fact that there are very few available interrupts to go around and the P/390 and S/390 are only happy with there own separate interrupts. The main advice: NEVER have an IRQ setting of AUTO; do not let the system arbitrarily assign the interrupts -- it will invariably get them wrong.

The important tradeoffs are:

RAID on its own IRQ
All non-RAID SCSI on same IRQ
P/390 on its own IRQ
All channel cards on same IRQ
LAN not with RAID, must share w/ SCSI
Disable the USB and Ethernet if not in use

Here is a sample IRQ combination:

Planar IRQ settings:
RAID ----------- 15
SCSI ------------ 14
Ethernet -------- 14
(USB) ---------- (10)

PCI (Slot) IRQ settings:
SCSI (1) ------ 14
P/390 (4) ------ 11
S/390 (5) ------ 10

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Server 330 (ES2)

4.1 Fast/Narrow tape drive (e.g., L490E) does not work when connected to the onboard SCSI adapter.

This problem is basically caused by the fact that a Single-ended, Fast/Narrow device (8-bit) is being attached to a Fast/Wide (16-bit) SCSI adapter which requires special configuration for F/N support. It will work but two things need to be done:
1. There is a jumper (J38) which needs to be changed so that the onboard adapter will be set for handling external 8-bit devices. Refer to Appendix A, "System Board Jumpers", in the Server 330 User's Guide, and look for J38 - external SCSI termination.

2. The onboard adapter needs to be properly terminated. Ensure that you have a terminator on the end of the cable to which the CDROM and internal 4mm tape drive are attached. Some 330 servers have a cable which already has a terminator molded onto the end of the cable. If not terminated, you should ask IBM for a SCSI-2 internal terminator (FRU 92F0322).

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4.2 The SCSI ID is not showing up as expected on an external RAID connection.

When attaching external tape drives to the RAID adapter on the Server 330, the adapter will re-assign the SCSI ID according to its own sequence of devices in use. Although you may have set the SCSI ID on a tape unit to 4 or 1, it may be presented as SCSI ID 3 (for example) to OS/2 when it is brought up.

Use the "/T" parameter on the ISITAPE device statement in CONFIG.SYS to view the "available" and "allocated" tape SCSI ID's to resolve any of these "identity crisis" problems.

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4.3 Can I really only attach one external tape drive to the onboard SCSI adapter?

Yes, that's true. The problem as we understand it is that the onboard SCSI adapter lacks sufficient electrical power to physically manage the external SCSI loop with more than one external device.

If you need additional tape drives, we recommend that you install an additional PCI SCSI adapter (e.g., IBM 76H5407, Adaptec AHA-2940UW).

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Server 500

5.1 I've attached a Fujitsu M2488E (F/W) to my RAID adapter, but OS/2 doesn't "see" it.

The IBM Fast/Wide RAID Adapter (70G9263) in the Server 500 was developed at a time when IBM had no Fast/Wide sequential devices. Therefore, it does not support any Fast/Wide sequential devices! In our opinion, it will probably not be upgraded to support F/W devices since this RAID adapter is out of production.

You will have to install a regular (non-RAID) SCSI-2 F/W Adapter (70G8498) in order to attach a SCSI Fast/Wide tape drive to your Server 500.

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5.2 64K tape processing errors on SCSI-2 F/W Streaming RAID.

Tape drives attached to the RAID adapter have experienced corrupted data on read processing with 64K data blocks. This is a known limitation of the F/W RAID adapter (70G9263). This problem does not occur on the non-RAID SCSI-2 F/W adapter (70G8498).

Since this model of RAID adapter is out of production, we do not believe that this problem will be corrected (that's our opinion).

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Server 520

6.1 I attached a tape drive to the external connector of the onboard SCSI adapter but the system doesn't detect it.

The CDROM and internal 4mm tape drive are attached to the 520's RAID controller. So, whoever set up your system (was it you!) did nothing to "activate" the onboard SCSI adapter. If you go to the "Selective Install" folder you would see that no SCSI adapter is listed -- OS/2 didn't see one when OS/2 went thru its install process.

You need to do two things:

1. Change the jumper setting on the motherboard to enable the onboard SCSI adapter and perform the hardware configuration to add the tape drive (which will now be detected). The jumper block should be in the "UP" position on Jumper 26. The legend "J26" is printed on the system board above the set of vertical jumper pins.

WARNING: For the next step, do not use the IBM2SCSI.ADD file that is on the OS/2 CDROM -- it is outdated. Load a newer file from one of IBM's OS/2 web sites or go to the P/390 web site (see link on our home page).

2. After you IPL OS/2, go to the "Selective Install" folder and select the SCSI Adapter item. The proper SCSI adapter will be highlighted by default. Complete the selective install process. The SCSI adapter will be activated the next time you IPL OS/2.

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