Building a Poor Man's SCSI-Based Cluster Hardware System
Articles and Tips: tip
Advanced Technical Training Instructor
Education in Novell UK
01 Nov 2001
Servers - Compaq ML330(PIII 733 MHz) with 512 Mb RAM On board SCSI Controller for SYS and CDROM Adaptec 29160 Controllers for the Shared Storage (adpt160.ham version 14.00 3rd Dec 1999)
Hardware Interrupt setting are as follows:
|
Controller Type
|
Slot
|
Interrupt
|
|
Compaq SCSI 2 (Onboard) |
3 |
10 |
|
NIC (Onboard) |
3 |
5 |
|
Adaptec 29160 |
1 |
11 |
|
Video Controller |
- |
7 |
|
Advanced Management System |
- |
15 |
|
LPT1 |
- |
Disabled |
SCSI adapter settings are as follows:
|
SCSI Adapter Setting
|
Node1
|
Node2
|
| Host adapter SCSI ID |
6 |
7 |
| SCSI parity Checking |
Disabled |
Disabled |
|
Host Adapter SCSI Termination
|
|
|
| LVD/SE connector |
Auto |
Auto |
| SE Connector |
Auto |
Auto |
|
Additional Boot Options
|
|
|
| Boot device options |
0 |
0 |
|
SCSI Device Configuration
|
|
|
| Sync Transfer Rate |
10 |
10 |
| Initiate wide negotiation |
YES |
YES |
| Enable Disconnection |
YES |
YES |
| Send Start Unit Command |
NO |
NO |
|
Advanced Options
|
|
|
| Reset SCSI Bus at IC /Init |
Disabled |
Disabled |
| Display Cntl <A> msg |
Enabled |
Enabled |
| Extended Bios Translation |
Enabled |
Enabled |
| Verbose/Silent Mode |
Verbose |
Verbose |
Here's the process I used to get everything to work:
Power on the Shared Storage first
Power on node1 (ID6) and let it boot to DOS
Power on Node2 (ID7) and let it boot to DOS and then run SERVER.EXE
Run SERVER.EXE on node1
The most importing thing is the reduction of the transfer rate. I found it to be most stable when I reduced it to 10Mbit. At 40 Mbits, I was getting a lot of "SCSI Bus Reset By 3 rd Party" messages with drive deactivation, as well as the bus was also hanging. At 10Mbits, the frequency of the "SCSI Bus Reset By 3 rd Party" messages is much less and more importantly, I have am not experiencing bus hangs or drive deactivations.
* Originally published in Novell AppNotes
Disclaimer
The origin of this information may be internal or external to Novell. While Novell makes all reasonable efforts to verify this information, Novell does not make explicit or implied claims to its validity.