DSCR Errors when swapping CF Module

[kevin906]

We have some sites running V4.0 Software--yeah, I know.

This problem has cropped up over the last few months.

Customer likes to rotate the CF modules for backups. If they are just rotating an older CF issue does not seem to happen as often
If they put in a fresh CF the system will not recognize the CF or the new CF module.
Attempts to INIT or ACT-DSSM result in:

ACT-DSSM:A1,6,,,;
F22: DEVICE <:A1H61:> IS NOT ACTIVATED BECAUSE OF DSCR ERROR H'2B
ACTIVATE NOT COMPLETED;

You cannot initialize the CF or mount it. Bouncing the drive has no effect.
The only way to get the drive happy again is to RELOAD the A1 so it recognizes the CF.
Restart won’t do it, has to be a RELOAD of the A1.

Once you do that you can mount the CF, see the existing backup and run another one.

ACT-DSSM:,6;
H500: AMO DSSM STARTED
H18: AREA <:A1H6E:> IS ACTIVATED
H18: AREA <:A1H6F:> IS ACTIVATED
H18: AREA <:A1H6G:> IS ACTIVATED
H18: AREA <:A1H6H:> IS ACTIVATED
H18: AREA <:A1H6I:> IS ACTIVATED

AMO-DSSM -111 DISK SWITCHOVER
ACTIVATE COMPLETED;


If the CF was totally failing I would not expect the reload to correct the issue at all but it does.
We even replace the CF drive for one of the sites which did not change the situation.

Any hints other than upgrading/patching?

 

[adibv]

This is what I have found (never tested):

" A DSCR together with "DRIVE IO ERROR" error is reported, if the HD has the status DEFECT.
The reason could be a HW-timeout , because of high traffic on the IDE bus (backup. upload etc.).
When the HD is in status DEFECT, there is no Application and no UW7 functionality.
Also remote access to the system is not possible.
The only way to go in service again is, to press the reset button on the DSCXL.

The optional Patch is to disable faster DMA (Direct memory access) modes on problematic boards.

IMPORTANT : This patch should be activated only on systems, where the error was observed.

There are still customers with hardware modules that do not seem to work well at higher DMA speeds and a work around patch is needed to activate the very conservative default timings.

Without the patches the HD duplication feature RQ00022813 is rendered practically unusable (a whole disk copy would last > 10 hours).


After patch activation
- either an ADP soft restart
- or a hardware reset of the HD/MO module is needed to reactivate or reset the old settings

For a hardware reset please shut down UW7, deactivate the devices (HD/MO), remove and reinsert the HD/MO module, and activate the devices.
That way no ADP restart is required, but it has to be done on-site.

Please activate patch by means of "act-patchpt,d,XX;"

PD10091 (To HiPath 4000 V3.0 OPD016) all versions

PD10091 (To HiPath 4000 V4 R0 OPD003)

PD20018 (To HiPath 4000 V4 R1,R2,R4 OPD009)

PD50014 (To HiPath 4000 V5 R0,R1 OPD009)

 

[kevin906]

Thanks for the reply---

 

[donb01]

This is going to be a PITA comment, but you NEED (as far as I've been told) to use 2GB CF cards, and the system is PICKY about which ones it likes. I don't know whether or bot you're trying to use a different size CF card and format it down to the lower capacity, but I was told that would not work (and tried it anyway and it didn't). I started on V5. At the end those cards were getting hard to find - I just found a whole bunch of them the other day when I was cleaning, but they are too small to be useful for much else. It has been a 6 years since I last touched the V5, and I can't remember whether you have to use INIT to format the card, or the system just formats it automatically when it runs the backup, or if there was a menu in Assistant under Backup that I used to format the cards. There were 2 different card formats - one for RMX data and one for Unix data, and you had to use the right format for the backup you were doing. I'm rattling this off from memory so I'm sure it's not 100% accurate!


Don Bruechert, Voice Comm Analyst II
CareTech Solutions @ Holy Family Memorial
Manitowoc, WI, USA

 

[kevin906]

Don, thanks for this. I have heard of this before. My support is to remote sites where I don't have much control over what goes in and what comes out. But I can pass this on to the customers I support and let them know. Maybe we can find a crate of these on Ebay.

 

[Moriendi]

The problem with using the non-Siemens supplied cards is that if you wanted a 2GB card, you'd get a card from Amazon which says 2GB on it, but if you put it in the 4K and checked it with dis-ddsm:a1,6,scsi; some of them are just under 2GB. Some are just over 2GB. Guess which ones work. The original cards (STEC?) were very expensive though, you can see why people went elsewhere. Those STEC cards are rock solid reliable though so you get what you pay for.

The sta-init which you need to do before the copy-ddrsm didn't complain when the card was undersized - it seemed to work. But dis-ddsm showed the true size.

DSCR error was a very common issue on those 4Ks both with MO/CR. It was never hardware related. An ADP reload would usually resolve and it definitely seemed related to the Unixware running at the same time. It's also an easy fix unless you have OSCC. I have always been able to swap CF cards though, I don't have that problem you report. Is the drive deactivated for sure when they eject the card? Optional patch from adibv is well worth a try.