Directly attached SCSI drives can be configured in a variety of methods.
Directly attached SCSI disk, tape, and optical devices are controlled by either the ibmsis device driver or the ipr device driver, depending on the storage adapter type. Refer to the I/O device table to determine which device driver your storage adapter utilizes. Refer to the PCI-X SCSI RAID Controller Reference Guide for Linux (Doc SA23-1327) for full documentation for both the ibmsis and ipr device drivers. This document contains information on how to configure directly attached disks, configure raid arrays, and perform error recovery and service.
Using the option to Display Disk Hardware Status in sisconfig, you see a model type for each directly attached SCSI device. You can determine if Linux has access to the disk by model number. If Linux does not have access to the disk, sisconfig can be used to resolve common disk errors. If sisconfig does not make the disk accessible to the logical partition, contact your next level of support.
Directly attached SCSI drives in a logical partition displays the following information:
| Model | Description | Sisconfig task |
|---|---|---|
| 020 | Disk is unprotected and uncompressed. | Sisconfig is not needed. |
| 050 | Disk is unprotected and uncompressed. | Sisconfig is not needed. |
| 060 | Disk is compressed. | Disk should be initialized and formatted. |
| 07x | Disk is parity protected. | Sisconfig is not needed. |
| 08x | Disk is compressed and parity protected. | Disk should be initialized and formatted. Device parity protection should also be stopped. |
Additional technical information on how to use the ibmsis utilities is included in a readme file with each download.
Certain Linux drivers are required before you can use the directly attached SCSI devices. Before you use ibmsis, verify you have the following Linux drivers:
| Description | Module name |
|---|---|
| Low-level SCSI device driver | ibmsis |
| SCSI disk driver in base Linux kernel | sd.o |
| SCSI tape driver in base Linux kernel | st.o |
| SCSI CD-ROM driver in base Linux kernel | sr.o |
| SCSI driver in base Linux kernel | scsi_mod.o |