Troubleshooting

Check the following list of troubleshooting suggestions if you have problems installing or using the PERC 2 controller and the SCSI devices attached to it:

• Does the PERC 2 BIOS banner (similar to the following) appear during bootup?

   Dell PERC 2  RAID Controller, V2.1Build XXXX
  (c) 1999 Adaptec, Inc. All Rights Reserved
  

  If the banner appears, it indicates that the system recognizes the PERC 2 as part of the hardware configuration. If it does not appear, check the following:

  • Is the PERC 2 properly seated in a bus master PCI expansion slot? Refer to your computer documentation for the slot location, or try another PCI slot.
  • Is the PERC 2 daughter card securely fastened to the PERC 2?
  • Does your computer's CMOS setup require you to enable PCI bus parameters (see your computer documentation)? If so, run the CMOS Setup program and assign the parameters -- typically IRQ, Enable PCI Slot, and Enable Bus Master.
  • Does the motherboard meet the minimum requirements listed on System Requirements? If not, contact Dell for a motherboard firmware upgrade.
  • Is the RAID controller or SCSI adapter with the boot device the first to be scanned by the system? You can usually set this in the System BIOS.
• If you receive a Plug & Play configuration error message during BIOS scan, you may need to redistribute adapters to eliminate the problem. Use the RCU from the Dell Utility partition or Dell Open Server Assistant CD to examine allocations.
• Are the SCSI buses terminated properly, and are all SCSI devices turned on?
• Are all SCSI bus cables and power cables connected securely? Be sure to carefully check the pins in the 68-pin cables.
• Does each device on the channel have a unique SCSI ID? If the controller will not boot, power off all disks and attempt to reboot. If the system boots and it is the first time the disks are connected, it is likely that the SCSI ID's are set incorrectly.
• Does the controller appear in the FAST open dialog? If not, check the System Event Log report for any errors reported by the controller. To do this press Start, Programs, Administrative Tools, Event Log.
• Did the PERC 2 pass self-test? If not, a message similar to the following will appear on boot-up:

   WARNING! The PERC 2 selftest has failed.
  

  Contact your technical service representative to determine the cause of failure and to see if a replacement controller is required.

Using the Controller Service Features

The PERC 2 BIOS provides a Controller Service utility which allows you to view a detailed log of BIOS events and change some advanced BIOS settings. This utility should be accessed in cases where your PERC 2 controller will not start because of a configuration problem.

Caution: The Controller Service utility is intended to assist technical support representatives in troubleshooting controller problems; it should not be used under normal operating conditions.

Follow these steps to access the Controller Service utility:

1. Press Ctrl-A when the following prompt appears when you turn on or reboot your server:

    Press <Ctrl><A> for Configuration Utility!
   

2. If multiple controllers are installed, select the controller you wish to configure and press Enter.
3. Press Ctrl-P to start the Controller Service Utility. A two-option menu appears.
4. Select Additional Controller Configuration to access advanced BIOS settings or select Controller Log Information to view detailed information on the current BIOS log and the previous BIOS log and press Enter.

Controller Log Information

If you are experiencing system problems, your Dell technical service representative can access the controller log to gain detailed information on the internal operations of the PERC 2 during the current boot and the previous boot.

Controller Configuration Options

The following options are available in the Controller Service utility:

• Force Single Container Configuration -- If Enabled, this option causes the PERC 2 to configure only the boot container to be able to boot; any other containers are ignored. The default is Disabled. Use this option if you encounter problems booting the controller because of problems with containers other than the boot container.
• Boot Mode -- This option sets the mode for the next boot. If Normal, then all of the containers and files systems will be configured (if possible) during system boot. If Maintenance, then none of the containers or file systems will be configured. The default is Normal. Maintenance mode allows the system to be started in cases where you are experiencing PERC 2 problems and cannot otherwise boot your system.
• Clear NVRAM-- When Enabled, this option clears the PERC 2 NVRAM (nonvolatile DIMM) of its contents. The default is Disabled.

  Caution: Clearing the NVRAM can have serious consequences! Loss of data occurs if the NVRAM is cleared when it contains valid data which has not been written to disk. Only an authorized individual should clear the NVRAM.

Configuring the PERC 2 Remote Agent for NetWare

The NetWare PERC 2 agent allows you to disable remote access, permit read-only access and require a remote user to supply a password before allowing a remote connection. You can configure the PERC 2 remote agent by editing the fsasrvnw.nlm file. To edit the file type load edit fsasrvnw.ini at the netware console prompt. Make the desired changes to the in file and exit the editor (see Access and Communications for settings). After the file has been edited, restart the fsarvnw.nlm application so that the software recognizes that configuration changes have occurred. To do this, type unload fsarvnw followed by load fsarvnw at the console prompts.

Note: In Windows NT, the PERC 2 remote agent can be configured through a control panel application or through the Windows NT Registry. Refer to the Flexible Array Storage Tool User's Guide for more information.

Access

The access section determines how or if a remote user is allowed to open a PERC 2 controller. The access section contains the following flags:

• Read-write -- if this field is set to TRUE then remote read-write access will be allowed. If this field is set to false then no remote users will be allowed to open controllers in read-write mode.
• Remote-access -- if this field is set to TRUE then remote access will be allowed. If this field is set to FALSE then no remote access will be allowed.
• Read-write-password -- if this field is set to TRUE then users opening controllers read-write remotely will be required to provide a password to gain access to the controller. The user will be prompted for a username and password. The user must supply a username and a password for an account on the NetWare server that has supervisor privileges.
• Read-only-password -- if this field is set to TRUE then users opening controllers read-only remotely will be required to provide a password to gain access to the controller. The user will be prompted for a username and password. The user must supply a username and a password for an account on the NetWare server that has supervisor privileges.

Communications

The communications section provides switches that control how communication will be configured. The communication section will contain the following switches:

• Use_IP -- if this switch is set to TRUE then the PERC 2 Remote Agent will attempt to use IP as a communications protocol.
• IP_PORT -- this switch will specify, in decimal, the IP port that will be used for communications. This may be helpful to users that are trying to access the controller through a firewall. The IP_PORT is specified as a four-octet address, for example 128.10.2.30
• Use_IPX -- if this switch is set to TRUE then the PERC 2 Remote Agent will attempt to use IPX as a communications protocol.
• IPX_SOCKET -- this switch will specify, in decimal, the IPX socket that will be used for communications. This may be helpful to users that are trying to access the controller through a firewall. The IPX_SOCKET is specified as a hexadecimal address, for example 4640E44D.000000000001
• Client_timeout -- this switch specifies, in seconds, the amount of time that the software will allow to expire before closing communications with the client.