IBM PC 330 Server SCSI Problems 1

[TroelsA]

I have an IBM PC Server 330 8640-PB0 wich is killing me.
When it starts it reaches the ServeRaid ver. 2.80.04 screen (where you can press <ctrl+I> for configuration although i dont).

It reports that:
1. firmware is ver. 2.82.00.
1. the drive configuration test fails.
2. warning: 2 logical drives are offline.
3. 2 logical drives are installed. (what are logical drives)

No disks are available after this. And no SCSI devices are visible in the Adaptec configuration tool ver. 1.26S1 except from device 7 which is the adapter.

The IBM has a bay with room for 6 disks. I have one disk for simplicity.
It does recocnize the SCSI cd-rom. It is useable although its not in the list over SCSI devices, mensioned earlier.

Any help is very much appreciated

Troels Anzie

 

[Guest_imported]

hi all,

i have got the same problems with the 330 Server from IBM

if anyone of you knows this problem and has just fixed it please contact me

mail to : Galaxy67@gmx.de

THX A LOT

GALAXY

 

[LarryTheCucumber]

The drives won't show up in the adaptec console because the drives are attached to an IBM ServeRaid controller.
Download and boot with the IBM ServeRaid CD.
You also have a defunct drive config. If you pull the drives and replace them with 1 drive the volumes that the adapter know about are gone. You need to configure the drives in the ServeRaid software. A logical drive is a drive or group of drive set in a logical configuration.
So if you setup a RAID5 array the spanning of the drives
will create a logical drive.

This is simplistic (watch for the comments)

 

[Guest_imported]

ok, i too have an ibm pc server 330 8640-pb0, heres the problem. i get he scsi bios not installed/no scsi boot device found error messages, however, ibm server raid shows the drive when in the mini configuration program. i have tried to boot from my cd drive but the drive isnt even reconized by adaptec (at least this is my suspicion).
i cannot get the ibm server raid cd to boot from this drive, so i cant install the other 2 scsi hot swap hard drives i have.

 

[LarryTheCucumber]

Do you have an OS on this box? Does the OS see the CD-ROM?
If not,
The 330 has SCSI CD-ROM. Check the cables and the normal trouble shooting things. At the Adaptec prompt press CTRL-A and go to the SCSI utilities and see it the CD shows up.

The Adaptec is on the system board and used for CD-ROMS, TAPE etc.

The ServeRaid is a PCI adapter and connect to the Hot-swap bays.

If you have an OS you can setup the ServeRaid utilities on the OS and use them to configure the Arrays.

 

[LarryTheCucumber]

BTW THis box could come with an on-board 2H ServeRaid.

 

[Guest_imported]

no operating system came installed on the box(got it second hand for helping someone out) and the scsi select utillity does not see the cd-rom(which is a scsi). serveraid, however, does see the cd-rom, although i cant access the drive in scsi select. main reason i need access to the drive is for a windows 2000 installation. ive set 2 arrays of 2 hard drives each and attempted to install windows from a boot disk , but i still need the cd-rom active to fully install windows, which the ataptec scsi controler cant find. ive also tried re-configuring the scsi devices under the scsi test disk,stll no devies found, not even my hard drives..arrrgh!

 

[LarryTheCucumber]

Since the CD-ROM is chained off the ServerRaid, we can exclude the ADAPTEC SCSISelect, there are probably no devices attached to the Adaptec controller(in a default config there are no devices attached to the Adaptec).
Enter the Bios config and reset to the default settings.
Check the startup sequence and see if it is set to
Floppy as 1st CDROM as second and HD0 and 3rd device.

Do you have any of the disks/manuals for this box?
This is the users guide.
ftp://ftp.pc.ibm.com/pub/pccbbs/pc_servers/sm1022us.pdf

 

[pajkico]

hi there,

Maybe it's too late to replay to this thread, but I have recently bought PC 330 Server 8640-PB0, and it works fine. There are 4 SCSI hot-swap drives and they all show in the scsi bios. If I can be of any help be free to ask.

By the way I am looking for the ram modules and a VRM for the second processor PII 266.

 

[xgeek]

Hi,

The 8640-PB0 has got 2 68-pin SCSI connectors on the system board. One is for a generic Adaptec 7880 Wide Ultra SCSI controller while the other is for an IBM Serveraid II channel.

If you want to use the CD-ROM, try connecting it to the generic SCSI port on the server.

As far as the RAID is concernced, hit Ctl-I at bootup, go into Advanced Functions and set the card to factory defaults. You should see all the drives (connected to the Serveraid II controller) change to an RDY state. Once you've confirmed that this is the case, you can boot up using the Serveraid Manager CD/diskette and create your array.

 

[bkearns]

To Pajkico,

I found VRM modules for $27 at:

http://www.expresspartsonline.com/expresspartsonline/12j2699.html

and

http://www.pcsurplusonline.com

had the PII/266/512k cpus for $10.

bkearns

 

[bkearns]

Just FYI:

IBM Latest drivers and software for ServeRAID controllers (ALL OF THEM):

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=psg1MIGR-495PES

The link above also has a link to the iso image of the Support CD which you can download and burn, boot it to install windows based config software. Linux and all Unix systems are supported as well. The CD also has the manuals for the RAID controller.

As best as I can tell:

The latest version of the RAID firmware is 5.1
The latest version of the RAID Bios is 2.8.13 (for the PC server 330)
The latest version of the system bios is 28A

There is a PC-DOS bootable version of the array configuration software that allows you to reconfigure the drive array, it is here:

IBM ServeRAID Support for DOS version 5.11

http://www-1.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=psg1MIGR-39723

Now, if anyone out there has any idea why the CD-ROM is not accessable through the ServeRAID controller I would be extremely grateful!

beaker

 

[bkearns]

After going through a week of &quot;fun&quot; getting three of these servers ready, I decided to save future generations from the learning curve I had to go through. I created a FAQ for this server (IBM PC Server 330) that explains where to get and apply all bios/firmware updates so it is up to date compaiable with all current OS including Linux/Unix variants. I also specify how to make the CD-ROM work for booting the OS install CD. It is in the IBM Server FAQ area.

Good Luck!

 

[carlo2]

VRM's
--------

Here is an email of a guy who is probably loaded with VRM's at least for HP's x-class, but probably also for IBM.

This is what he answered on my question if he had VRM's:

What? VRM's?
If you are asking about VRM's, the answer is yes and plenty.
Thanks. Victor.

microint@attbi.com

 

[BradBazley]

If you have a browse through the ServeRAID II Configuration (Ctrl+I on startup) there is actually an option in there to boot from the CD-ROM Drive while it is connected to the ServeRAID Adaptor - and it is turned off by default. Much easier than moving the CD-ROM Drive to the SCSI Channel. If you need help in finding it, just email me or reply to the post.