OpenVMS ALPDRIV12_071 Alpha V7.1 - 7.1-1H2 DRDRIVER ECO Summary

TITLE: OpenVMS ALPDRIV12_071 Alpha V7.1 - 7.1-1H2 DRDRIVER ECO Summary Modification Date: 13-OCT-1999 Modification Type: Updated Kit: Supersedes ALPDRIV09_071 NOTE: An OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file is stored on the Internet in a self-expanding compressed file. The name of the compressed file will be kit_name-dcx_vaxexe for OpenVMS VAX or kit_name-dcx_axpexe for OpenVMS Alpha. Once the file is copied to your system, it can be expanded by typing RUN compressed_file. The resultant file will be the OpenVMS saveset or PCSI installation file which can be used to install the ECO. Copyright (c) Compaq Computer Corporation 1997, 1999. All rights reserved. PRODUCT: OpenVMS Alpha Volume Shadowing COMPONENT: SWXCR RAID Array Driver (SYS$DRDRIVER.EXE) SOURCE: Compaq Computer Corporation ECO INFORMATION: ECO Kit Name: ALPDRIV12_071 ECO Kits Superseded by This ECO Kit: ALPDRIV09_071 ALPDRIV05_071 ALPDRIV01_071 ALPDRIV04_062 ECO Kit Approximate Size: 288 Blocks Kit Applies To: OpenVMS Alpha V7.1, V7.1-1H1, V7.1-1H2 System/Cluster Reboot Necessary: Yes Installation Rating: INSTALL_3 3 - To be installed on all systems running the listed versions of OpenVMS which are experiencing the problems described. Kit Dependencies: The following remedial kit(s) must be installed BEFORE installation of this kit: None In order to receive all the corrections listed in this kit, the following remedial kits should also be installed: None ECO KIT SUMMARY: An ECO kit exists for DRDRIVER.EXE on OpenVMS Alpha V7.1 through V7.1-1H2. This kit addresses the following problems: Problems Addressed in ALPDRIV12_071: o The original implementation of DRDRIVER set the DEV$M_NOCLU bit and cleared the DEV$M_CLU bit in the UCB's devchar2 field for each logical drive. This was intended to delay cluster serving of the DRcu: units until the controller-initialization sequence had correctly determined the device's characteristics (size, support for forced error, etc.). Once the characteristics were known and the appropriate UCB fields filled in, the driver would clear DEV$M_NOCLU and set DEV$M_CLU, then call scs$disk_mscp_newdev() to arrange for the unit to be cluster-served. Although the effects of this approach were not well defined/documented, it worked for several years. Unfortunately, recent changes to other parts of the system (MOUNT and the XQP in particular) have broken this approach. These facilities expect consistency in the NOCLU bit. Customers have been reporting HDRFULL and BADFID errors that have been traced to this way of handling NOCLU. The driver now sets CLU and clears NOCLU, as well as all of the other relevant characteristics in the UCB, before the UCB is linked into the I/O database. This ensures that a unit is not cluster-served before its time. o A mismatch between the command count and the actual number of commands causes an INVEXCEPTN system crash. The crash footprint is as follows: Fatal Bugcheck Crash Time: 28-MAY-1999 15:37:26.88 Bugcheck Type: INVEXCEPTN, Exception while above ASTDEL Node: TRDHQ1 (Clustered) CPU Type: AlphaServer 2100 4/275 VMS Version: V7.1 Current Process: A1 Sender_1 Current Image: DSA0:[ALLIN1.OA$EXE_AXP_SHARE]OA$MAIN.EXE Failing PC: FFFFFFFF.802537DC SYS$DRDRIVER_NPRO+057DC Failing PS: 30000000.00000804 Problems Addressed in ALPDRIV09_071: o This set of changes introduces improvements to DRDRIVER that are needed to support StorageWorks Command Console, the global configuration/monitoring system available from Storage. Problems Addressed in ALPDRIV05_071: o The ALPDRIV01_071 remedial kit, which applied to V6.2* and V7.1 is being reissued as two single version kits. There are no new fixes in this kit. If you have installed the ALPDRIV01_071 remedial kit you do not need to install this kit. Problems Addressed in ALPDRIV01_071: o Unacceptable shadow-set merge times may occur when the SYS$DRDRIVER (the SWXCR RAID array driver) is used. The driver sometimes allocates an insufficient number of DMA mapping registers when it performs an IO$_WRITECHECK. The effect of this is that insufficient data is being read into the driver's buffer for the comparison which causes the comparison to fail. There are actually two instances of essentially the same problem. The first is in routine dr_compare(), the second in dr_diagnose(). Those routines both call dr_allocate_io(), which (on large-memory systems) allocates map registers based on the values of irp$l_boff and irp$l_bcnt. These registers are then used to map, not the user buffer, but a driver-private buffer (dr->buffer) that is to be the target of the eventual I/O request. If the page alignment of dr->buffer is such that the I/O touches an extra page there that it would not have touched in the user buffer, dr_allocate_io() can end up allocating one too few map registers, and the resulting DMA operation fails to transfer the correct amount of data. In both cases, the driver has been modified to set irp$l_boff temporarily to the correct value for the driver-private buffer before the call to dr_allocate_io(). irp$l_boff is then restored to its original value. Problems addressed in ALPDRIV04_062 kit o DRDRIVER (the SWXCR RAID array driver) can hang. This hang occurs when a shadow copy is in progress between two logical RAID (DR) drives, and the SWXCR controller is under an extremely heavy I/O load. CSC NOTE: The hang might also occur in any process that is performing I/O. This includes the SWXCR Monitor and/or manager processes. This problem is corrected in OpenVMS Alpha V7.0. INSTALLATION NOTES: The images in this kit will not take effect until the system is rebooted. If there are other nodes in the VMScluster, they must also be rebooted in order to make use of the new image(s). If it is not possible or convenient to reboot the entire cluster at this time, a rolling re-boot may be performed. All trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This patch can be found at any of these sites:

Files on this server are as follows:

alpdriv12_071.README
alpdriv12_071.CHKSUM
alpdriv12_071.CVRLET_TXT
alpdriv12_071.a-dcx_axpexe
alpdriv12_071.CVRLET_TXT