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Date:      Tue, 18 Aug 1998 17:31:26 -0400 (EDT)
From:      Simon Shapiro <shimon@simon-shapiro.org>
To:        Charles Owens <owensc@enc.edu>
Cc:        freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   RE: DPT management binaries for FreeBSD?
Message-ID:  <XFMail.980818173126.shimon@simon-shapiro.org>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980818154628.3182I-100000@itsdsv2.enc.edu>

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On 18-Aug-98 Charles Owens wrote:
> On Sat, 15 Aug 1998, Simon Shapiro wrote:
> 
>> 
>> On 13-Aug-98 Charles Owens wrote:
>> > Simon,
>> > 
>> > I looked under ftp://ftp.simon-shapiro.org/crash/tools and noted
>> > a number of FreeBSD binaries with names like "dtp_dm".  Could this per
>> > chance be the native mgmt software that Tom is talking about below?
>> > 
>> > If so, do I need a /dev/dpt?  How can a make one (/dev/MAKEDEV doesn't
>> > know anything about it, of course)?
>> 
>> These will not work in 2.2, only in 3.0-current;  Too much retrofitting
>> for
>> what is considered a stable version of the O/S.
> 
> Okay then, two questions:
> 
> 1. Without these tools is there any way for me, with a 2.2-stable system
>    to:
>       * determine array status (e.g. "drive 3 has failed")

Smart Alec Reply:  Listen to the beeps.  They indicate (really) controller,
           bus, target.
Serious Answer: You are right, and I am working on it.  I will probably
                release it on 3.0, as 2.x is a stable release for which new
                functionality is not destined.

>       * issue basic commands like "rebuild array" or "make drive X
>           a hot spare."

See Serious Answer above.

> I'm mostly interested in being able to fully recover from a single drive
> failure without having to reboot and run the DOS Storage Manager.
> 
> ... and no, I don't have DPT drives and enclosures (grrr...) which I
> understand would take care of this for me.

Took the words out of my mouth :-).  With DPT enclosures, you will find
that the number of failures is reduced dramatically.  Call me at home for
details on how to acomplish that a bit easier.

> 2. Would you consider 3.0-current generally stable enough for me to 
>    use for a large storage system?  (about 52 GB usable space, 4 RAID-5
>    arrays ccd'd together, as you suggested)  It will be doing little
> other
>    than serving up this disk space to a handfull of other FreeBSD boxes
>    via NFSv2.

I do not know the state of the NFS these days.  My experience with the DPT
driver and the kernel, is that I can load 3.0 much heavier than a 2.2
kernel.

This last sentense is in conflict with the official FreeBSD policy of
strongly discuraging production work on 3.0.  My advise here is to always
test a new 3.0 kernel, heavily, before putting it on a production machine. 
Heck, this is good advise for ANY software version :-)

>    If I did use 3.0-current, will these tools from your ftp site allow me
>    to do what I describe above?

Not yet, but as soon as they are functioning properly you will.

Simon


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