Jonas Nasholm (ans-support@nasholm.com)
Thu, 27 Jan 2000 18:20:03 +0100
Hi,
I've done a few tests with an original Network Server PCI RAID Card on a
Linux server. The information below is part fact and part speculation. I
hope that someone on this list has the knowledge and hardware to do
further tests. To get the original hardware RAID to work under Linux on
the ANS is a real possibility - in theory at least.
The ANS RAID Card is a dual channel Mylex DAC960PD with a single chip
firmware, version 2.44.
Dandelion Digital (http://www.dandelion.com/Linux/) has produced an
excellent Linux driver for various Mylex RAID cards, including the
DAC960PD. The Network Server PCI RAID Card doesn't have the required
3.51 firmware version to be supported by the driver.
Any Network Server PCI RAID Card with two EEPROM sockets can probably be
upgraded to firmware version 3.51. The EEPROM sockets are located near
the external SCSI connectors on the battery side of the board. It's a
bit tricky to get the old firmware chip out of its socket if you don't
have the proper tool.
A two chip firmware upgrade can be purchased from Mylex Customer
Services (custserv@mylex.com) in the US. It won't be cheap but it's a
reasonable price compared to what may already be invested in full
production ANS.
My upgraded Network Server PCI RAID Card worked perfectly with RedHat
Linux 6.1 on Intel hardware. The configuration of a four disc RAID5
system was accomplished with the DACCF utility from Mylex. The Linux
install required no special tricks or utilities other than what is
included on the RedHat CD.
When I asked Mylex Support if the card would work in a server with
OpenFimware instead of a BIOS the reply was to just try it, it should
work. I transferred the RAID card to a PowerMac G3 and it seemed to do
what it is supposed to do. It spun up the drives one at a time and it
didn't lock up the machine as I feared it would. The original ANS RAID
card configuration utility didn't work though. This could be due to the
fact that the G3 wasn't an ANS (!) or that the "dacconf.ns" utility
won't work with the new firmware. Getting hold of the latest DACCF
utility for OpenFirmware may be a bit of a problem.
The kernel source from the Yellow Dog Linux distribution seems to
contain the necessary DAC960 patches from Dandelion Digital. My personal
assumption is that the DAC960 driver would build and work equally well
under Yellow Dog Linux as it does under RedHat Linux. I can't verify
this because I haven't got an unused ANS to experiment on and to be
honest, I'm not sure how to compile the ANS kernel anyway.
I hope this could get development in motion to support more exotic SCSI
cards and network adapters under PowerPC based Linux distributions. It
would be very neat to get newer and less expensive Mylex RAID cards to
work on G3 or G4 hardware, not to mention quad port network adapters
with port trunking as well.
Regards,
Jonas Nasholm
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b3 on Thu Jan 27 2000 - 16:53:12 GMT