[SunRescue] SPARCserver+SSA Questions (lots :)

[Bjrn Ramqvist]

sparcy wrote:
> 
> I've bought the SPARCserver 1000 and a SPARCstorage Array I saw earlier this week in a
> dump shop. I got to take it home for a mere 150$ (without monitor tho) which is pretty
> okay I guess.

Congratulations! That's a very good price.

> I got it going (this is liking starting up your own private nuclear plant, first of all
> there's *lot's* of noise (it has 3 large fans) and then there's all kinds
> on neat 'knight-rider' alike lights at the back - neat stuff ;^)

Aw. You haven't heard the 4/690 machines, haven't you? :-)
And yes, those 'knight-rider'-lights exist on these machines too, thank
God.

> Now I've been trying to find some info, both on the Server as
> on the Array but still haven't been able to find much. The only thing that came
> close was some info on Sparc Clusters (which seem to be just the same just multiple
> servers with multiple array's hooked up together) on http://docs.sun.com.

You are practicly referring to the SPARCcluster 1000PDB, which indeed
are 2 SPARCserver 1000(E) with each SPARCstorage Array 100(/110),
connected together to form a kind cluster.
I have some broschures covering this setup somewhere... Aah, now when I
think of it;

check
http://www.eagle.y.se/~ramq/sunpics/SPARCcluster_1000PDB_1.jpg
...to
http://www.eagle.y.se/~ramq/sunpics/SPARCcluster_1000PDB_4.jpg

and
http://www.eagle.y.se/~ramq/sunpics/SPARCserver_1000E_1.jpg
...to
http://www.eagle.y.se/~ramq/sunpics/SPARCserver_1000E_4.jpg

And sorry for the huge filesizes. These are just raw (unedited) scans
which eventually will show up at www.sunhelp.org hopefully someday.

> 1. I'd love to get a manual for this thing (either online or printed), is there a
> manual online at all ? (I can't even find the specs of eiter on www.sun.com),
> does sun deliver just a manual for a particular (old) system, and how much would
> this approx. cost ? - or even I only need a couple of pages I guess, anybody has
> a manual and would be kind enough to photocopy or scan some pages (although
> I'm not sure if this is okay, copyright wise) - or sell it to me ?

I guess someone internally @ Sun could jack the document of their
Intranet, but the chance is almost nonexcistent.
You could always try calling up Sun and they could probably sell you a
hardcopy of the manual, but that would sure cost you some $$$.
Nobody even want the User Manuals anyway, since they only try to explain
how to plug in the power cable and where you find the 'power on' button,
all along in 300+ pages.

If it's technical/service specs your after, look for the FEH (Field
Engineer Handbook).

> 2. The sparc server has 4 'drawers' (basically like your clothing drawer, but
> smaller, at the back, you can take them out by pulling the plastic levers)
> 
> - The upper drawer has the monitor ouput and the fiber output (which connects
>   to the array), a standard A and B port, a SCSI port, a keyboard port and a UTP (TP) port.

This is the 1st system board. Probably equipped with 2 CPUs and some
memory.
(The UTP is 10Mbit Ethernet, and the first serial-port makes the
console-port)

> - The 2nd drawer from above has another A and B port, another keyboard port, 2 UTP ports,
>   and a scsi port

This is the 2nd system board, which probably makes this a 4-way system.
Sounds like a fine machine.
What I don't know, is that second UTP port. Could be 100Mbit interface,
I don't know.
Carefully slide the board out and check for and part-number on that
Sbus-board.
(xxx-xxxx digits)

> - The 3rd drawer has 3 scsi ports, IN, OUT and one without a label.

That's the 'disc expansion board'. Simply a dumb board with connectors
to the backplane XDBus, providing the necessary +5V and +12V (and GND)
to the drives. The 'IN'-port sure is SCSI-IN, where you route a cable
from the 1st (or 2nd) systemboards SCSI-connector. Put a SCSI-terminator
at the SCSI-OUT port. Or, if you choose to route the cable even further,
put the unused SCSI-terminator at the unlabeled port. :-)

> - The 4th drawer is just a platic front.

And therefore; nothing. :-)

> 3. As mentioned, the first and second drawer have 'knight-rider' (you know,
> the silly series with that black car 'kit' and that what-do-you-mean-I-can't-act?
> david hasselhoff) these are green and yellow and go up and down. This looks awfully
> cool but I guess they must have a purpose (I can't imagine sun constructor's going:
> yeah - that looks cool! - we don't need a purpose for this! - It just look cool! :)
> so what are they ?

The first 2 green lights is sitting there just telling you if either CPU
is working or not. (Green LED off = nonfunctional or non-excistent CPU)
The other ones just have the same function as on the 4/300, 4/400 and
4/600 CPU's (and probably some Sun3s); activity-LEDS - in a very cool
way. :-)
I haven't found any practical use for these, other than they tend to
slow down when the system load goes up, and provides necessary
diagnostic information.

> 4. On to the sparc array, I think this thing can hold up to 30 disks, there are currently
> (what seems 12 disks installed in it, I guess 2.1Gig each) - The problem is that I can't
> completely pull out any of the slots (there are 3) which hold the harddisks, I can only
> pull it out halfways and then it's stuck (the same for all slots), So I can't verify
> if there are more harddisks in the back of the slot (it's really hard to see). There
> must be a trick to pull out these slots completely (given that in an emergency one
> would need to replace a disk at the very back of a slot) - how does on do this ?

Pull the handle out and slide the tray out fully. Carefully push it back
just a liiiittle bit, and lift it straight up. (not OUT) Check under the
tray. There should be a some sort of "clamp" there, which you can push.
Push that little metallic clamp, and meanwhile slide the tray out
completely. Viola.

> The ------ line means solid, and -_-_-_ line means blinking, so the 2nd harddisk from
> the back (and I'm guessing there's a harddisk there - since I can see it, see
> question 4) seems to have a problem ? yes ? Anybody know what 6229 means and
> what blinking or not blinking means ?
> 
> Also there's a LED at the back of the array ('sys ok') which is blinking (?)

This is normal functionality.
Although, that blinking activity should mean that it's spinning up the
drives?
Either way, I haven't got enough experience with these arrays to totally
answer that question. I guess you'll have to find the "Using the
SPARCstorage Array 2.3 AnswerBook" on docs.sun.com, under "Hardware" ->
2Storage", at the bottom.

These SSA's weren't designed to scroll the text "there seems to be some
trouble with my 29th drive, please check.", but instead just yell
something "1234!!!" into your face, leaving you there with a funny
questionmark above your head. :-)
Infact, all the error-handling goes through the FC-interface, to some
intelligent software on the host-side.

> 6. I've been trying to find some info on the commmunication protocol for talking between
> the server and the array (the fiber optic cable) - this seems to be Solaris specific,
> it seems that only solaris is able to communicate with the array through specific
> software (which is probably still installed on the system) - is this true ? Or is
> there some way to access the array as a 'virtual' scsi bay ? (this is probably a
> silly question, but I clueless to how this works)

To keep things short; this is no hardware-RAID box.

Some facts:
The array consists of either a 40MHz MicroSPARC (the 100/102 model), or
a 110MHz MicroSPARC-II (the 110/112/114 model) which cares for the
connection between the FC-AL interface, and the SCSI-buses.
Yes. Buses. Six Fast/Wide SCSI-buses divided into 5 slots each,
providing upto 30 drives. (8GB capacity is maximum for these arrays) The
last number just mention the capacity of the drives, in gigabytes.

All RAID/striping/mirroring is handled in software. Either by the
"Solstice Disksuite" (crap) or the "SPARCstorage Volume Manager"
(better). Either way, find one of these and you have a perfect setup,
and you're able to push the limits of the box through spreading data
along all SCSI-channels.

The communications protocol is Fibre Channel. And no, that's not exactly
the same FC as today, just a predecessor of the same standard, running
at 1/4th the speed of todays; 25MB/s. Probably enough by that time of
manufacture, but sluggish by comparing with todays Fibre Channel. (And
probably missing some features)

The nice thing about the FC-interface, is that you have a maximum of 500
meters of cable to deal with, which means you could place all your
arrays in an entirely different room, isolated from the rest in case of
fire and such.
That probably doesn't mind you, but a nice fact. :-)
Another nice feature is that you can have dual GBICs (fiber modules) on
both the host communication card, and the SSA, providing redundancy. A
nice thing that you can run two independent arrays on one host card.
Perfect setup for mass storage, if you're running out of Sbus expansion
slots.
(Imagine 30x8GB, on two arrays, in just one Sbus slot)
Ofcourse, that shouldn't be a big problem in a SS1000 with 4 system
boards, but for smaller configurated servers like SS 5/10/20, or Ultra
1.

> 7. The last question (finally ;-) - I gathered that support from other OS's for sun4d
> arch's is pretty much lacking (Netbsd, OpenBSD, Linux don't support it) are there
> any OS's out (apart from solaris) that do support sun4d ?

I don't know, but NetBSD seems to be the most platform-wide OS I've ever
come by, ever. Although, I have no idea about eventual support for SSA's
and other equipment, in either OS.
Try Solaris. It's free (now), it's fast, it's standard, it's Sun (on Sun
equipment).

> *Any* help on any of these questions would be greatly appreciated!

Hope this helps.

	/Regards, Bjorn