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Vladislav Bolkhovitin
451443a6c8
This is SCST driver for ISP Qlogic chipsets commonly used in many SCSI and FC host bus adapters. Supported chipset are listed in README file, incomplete list of supported HBA's is in doc/Hardware.txt . It is based on Matthew Jacob's multiplatform driver for ISP chipsets, which can be download from ftp://ftp.feral.com/pub/isp/isp_dist.tgz git-svn-id: http://svn.code.sf.net/p/scst/svn/trunk@135 d57e44dd-8a1f-0410-8b47-8ef2f437770f
305 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
305 lines
9.4 KiB
Plaintext
$Id: Hardware.txt,v 1.6 2006/02/17 22:53:44 mjacob Exp $
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Copyright (c) 1997-2004 by Matthew Jacob
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All rights reserved.
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Hardware that is Known To or Should Work with This Driver
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0. Intro
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This is not an endorsement for hardware vendors (there will be
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no "where to buy" URLs here with a couple of exception). This
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is simply a list of things I know work, or should work, plus
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maybe a couple of notes as to what you should do to make it
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work. Corrections accepted. Even better would be to send me
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hardware to I can test it.
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I'll put a rough range of costs in US$ that I know about. No doubt
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it'll differ from your expectations.
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1. HBAs
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Qlogic 2100, 2102
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2200, 2202, 2204
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There are various suffices that indicate copper or optical
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connectors, or 33 vs. 66MHz PCI bus operation. None of these
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have a software impact.
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Approx cost: 1K$ for a 2200
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Qlogic 2300, 2312, 2340, 2342
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These are the new 2-Gigabit cards. Optical only.
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Approx cost: ??????
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Antares P-0033, P-0034, P-0036
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There many other vendors that use the Qlogic 2X00 chipset. Some older
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2100 boards (not on this list) have a bug in the ROM that causes a
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failure to download newer firmware that is larger than 0x7fff words.
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Approx cost: 850$ for a P-0036
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In general, the 2200 class chip is to be preferred.
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2. Hubs
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Vixel 1000
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Vixel 2000
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Of the two, the 1000 (7 ports, vs. 12 ports) has had fewer problems-
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it's an old workhorse.
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Approx cost: 1.5K$ for Vixel 1000, 2.5K$ for 2000
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Gadzoox Cappellix 3000
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Don't forget to use telnet to configure the Cappellix ports
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to the role you're using them for- otherwise things don't
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work well at all.
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(cost: I have no idea... certainly less than a switch)
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3. Switches
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Brocade Silkworm II
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Brocade 2X00
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Brocade 3X00
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Especially with revision 2 or higher f/w, this is now best
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of breed for fabrics or segmented loop (which Brocade
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calls "QuickLoop").
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For the Silkworm II, set operating mode to "Tachyon" (mode 3).
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The web interace isn't good- but telnet is what I prefer anyhow.
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You can't connect a Silkworm II and the other Brocades together
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as E-ports to make a large fabric (at least with the f/w *I*
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had for the Silkworm II).
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Approx cost of a Brocade 2400 with no GBICs is about 8K$ when
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I recently checked the US Government SEWP price list- no doubt
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it'll be a bit more for others. I'd assume around 10K$.
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ANCOR Sanbox1
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ANCOR Sanbox2 (2Gb)
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These are also fine switches, but you have to use a browser
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with working java to manage it.
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These also support fabric and segmented loops.
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These switches now *do* form E-ports with each other.
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(cost: no idea)
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McData (model unknown, oem'd by HP as "SureStore FC Director")
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Works well. Very very expensive.
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4. Cables/GBICs
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Multimode optical is adequate for Fibre Channel- the same cable is
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used for Gigabit Ethernet.
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Copper DB-9 and Copper HSS-DC connectors are also fine. Copper &&
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Optical both are rated to 1.026Gbit- copper is naturally shorter
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(the longest I've used is a 15meter cable but it's supposed to go
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longer).
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The reason to use copper instead of optical is that if step on one of
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the really fat DB-9 cables you can get, it'll survive. Optical usually
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dies quickly if you step on it.
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Approx cost: I don't know what optical is- you can expect to pay maybe
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a 100$ for a 3m copper cable.
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GBICs-
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I use Finisar copper and IBM Opticals.
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Approx Cost: Copper GBICs are 70$ each. Opticals are twice that or more.
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Vendor: (this is the one exception I'll make because it turns out to be
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an incredible pain to find FC copper cabling and GBICs- the source I
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use for GBICs and copper cables is http://www.scsi-cables.com)
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Other:
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There now is apparently a source for little connector boards
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to connect to bare drives: http://www.cinonic.com.
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5. Storage JBODs/RAID
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JMR 4-Bay
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Rinky-tink, but a solid 4 bay loop only entry model.
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I paid 1000$ for mine- overprice, IMO.
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JMR Fortra
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I rather like this box. The blue LEDs are a very nice touch- you
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can see them very clearly from 50 feet away.
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I paid 2000$ for one used.
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Sun A5X00
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Very expensive (in my opinion) but well crafted. Has two SES
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instances, so you can use the ses driver (and the example
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code in /usr/share/examples) for power/thermal/slot monitoring.
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Approx Cost: The last I saw for a price list item on this was 22K$
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for a unpopulated (no disk drive) A5X00.
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DataDirect E1000 RAID
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Don't connect both SCSI and FC interfaces at the same time- a SCSI
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reset will cause the DataDirect to think you want to use the SCSI
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interface and a LIP on the FC interface will cause it to think you
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want to use the FC interface. Use only one connector at a time so
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both you and the DataDirect are sure about what you want.
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Cost: I have no idea.
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Veritas ServPoint
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This is a software storage virtualization engine that
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runs on Sparc/Solaris in target mode for frontend
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and with other FC or SCSI as the backend storage. FreeBSD
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has been used extensively to test it.
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Cost: I have no idea.
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6. Disk Drives
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I have used lots of different Seagate and a few IBM drives and
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typically have had few problems with them. These are the bare
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drives with 40-pin SCA connectors in back. They go into the JBODs
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you assemble.
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Seagate does make, but I can no longer find, a little paddleboard
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single drive connector that goes from DB-9 FC to the 40-pin SCA
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connector- primarily for you to try and evaluate a single FC drive.
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All FC-AL disk drives are dual ported (i.e., have separte 'A' and
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'B' ports- which are completely separate loops). This seems to work
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reasonably enough, but I haven't tested it much. It really depends
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on the JBOD you put them to carry this dual port to the outside
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world. The JMR boxes have it. The Sun A5X00 you have to pay for
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an extra IB card to carry it out.
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Approx Cost: You'll find that FC drives are the same cost if not
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slightly cheaper than the equivalent Ultra3 SCSI drives.
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7. Recommended Configurations
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These are recommendations that are biased toward the cautious side. They
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do not represent formal engineering commitments- just suggestions as to
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what I would expect to work.
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A. The simpletst form of a connection topology I can suggest for
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a small SAN (i.e., replacement for SCSI JBOD/RAID):
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HOST
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2xxx <----------> Single Unit of Storage (JBOD, RAID)
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This is called a PL_DA (Private Loop, Direct Attach) topology.
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B. The next most simple form of a connection topology I can suggest for
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a medium local SAN (where you do not plan to do dynamic insertion
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and removal of devices while I/Os are active):
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HOST
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2xxx <----------> +--------
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| Vixel |
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| 1000 |
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| +<---> Storage
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| +<---> Storage
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| +<---> Storage
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--------
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This is a Private Loop topology. Remember that this can get very unstable
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if you make it too long. A good practice is to try it in a staged fashion.
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It is possible with some units to "daisy chain", e.g.:
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HOST
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2xxx <----------> (JBOD, RAID) <--------> (JBOD, RAID)
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In practice I have had poor results with these configurations. They *should*
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work fine, but for both the JMR and the Sun A5X00 I tend to get LIP storms
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and so the second unit just isn't seen and the loop isn't stable.
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Now, this could simply be my lack of clean, newer, h/w (or, in general,
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a lack of h/w), but I would recommend the use of a hub if you want to
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stay with Private Loop and have more than one FC target.
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You should also note this can begin to be the basis for a shared SAN
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solution. For example, the above configuration can be extended to be:
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HOST
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2xxx <----------> +--------
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| Vixel |
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| 1000 |
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| +<---> Storage
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| +<---> Storage
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| +<---> Storage
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HOST | |
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2xxx <----------> +--------
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However, note that there is nothing to mediate locking of devices, and
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it is also conceivable that the reboot of one host can, by causing
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a LIP storm, cause problems with the I/Os from the other host.
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(in other words, this topology hasn't really been made safe yet for
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this driver).
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D. You can repeat the topology in #B with a switch that is set to be
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in segmented loop mode. This avoids LIPs propagating where you don't
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want them to- and this makes for a much more reliable, if more expensive,
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SAN.
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E. The next level of complexity is a Switched Fabric. The following topology
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is good when you start to begin to get to want more performance. Private
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and Public Arbitrated Loop, while 100MB/s, is a shared medium. Direct
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connections to a switch can run full-duplex at full speed.
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HOST
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2xxx <----------> +---------
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| Brocade|
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| 2400 |
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| +<---> Storage
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| +<---> Storage
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| +<---> Storage
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HOST | |
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2xxx <----------> +---------
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I would call this the best configuration available now. It can expand
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substantially if you cascade switches.
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There is a hard limit of about 253 devices for each Qlogic HBA- and the
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fabric login policy is simplistic (log them in as you find them). If
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somebody actually runs into a configuration that's larger, let me know
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and I'll work on some tools that would allow you some policy choices
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as to which would be interesting devices to actually connect to.
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