[davegreen]

Wow I spent a whole weekend trying to get the following SCSI card to work in a Xserve G4 running OSX server 10.2.8. and with no success.
The card is a ATTO ExpressPCI UL4D (Dual channel, Ultra320 PCI-X-toSCSI Host Adapter). I have followed the installation instructions and installed the latest driver 2.2.2 with firmware 1.4.2f1 from the ATTO site.
In devices and Volumes in ASP i can physically see the SCSI card in the PCI slot but I cannot see my overland storage unit connected to it. I have obviously rebooted the system with the overland unit booted up first.
I have used the ATTO configuration tool but with no success. ie to reflash the card etc..... Interesting enough the configuration tool still sees our old SDX700c tape unit that is no longer connected on the bus.
I have tested the card by putting it in a AGP graphics Power Mac G4 and it connects up fine to the overland unit and ASP sees it on the bus.
Am I doing something wrong or is there anything else I can try as I am starting to lose my hair over this one. Perhaps the Atto card's have issues with Xserves? Anyone's help would be muchly appreciated.

regards,

Dave

[Detrius]

Have you tried a different PCI slot on the Xserve? Do you have any other cards you can try in the PCI slots of the Xserve?

Of course, double check termination. If there is just the one device, the card and the device both need to have termination on. That can cause all kinds of bizarre issues.

[davegreen]

Hi Detrius,

Thanks For responding so quickly. As you can guess from my posting I am very new to this otherwise I would have sorted the problem out by now. I will be trying your suggestions tomorrow when all users are at home.
One question I have though, with regards to termination on the card, when I highlight Channel 1 in the Atto config tool it gives me under the tab NVRAM config, Termination. Terminiation is set to Auto but also gives me the selection for putting it to high am I looking in the right area or am I totally off the mark.

regards,

Dave Green

[davegreen]

Hi Detrius,

I have worked out the problem with the G4 Xserve running 10.2.8. When I tested the UL4D card in the AGP Power Graphics G4, that unit had OSX 10.3 (client) and it worked fine. I then built a PCI Graphics G4 Mac running standard (client) OSX (10.1.5), minimun OS requirement as per the specifications for the ATTO card. Installed the UL4D card and I obtained the same result as my G4 Xserve. Can see it in the PCI slot but cannot see the Overland tape unit connected to it.

The same PCI Graphics Mac I upgraded to 10.3 (panther) and what a surprise. I could see both the UL4D card in apple system profiler as well as the Overland Unit connected to it._ I did not have to make any configuration changes, I did not have to install any drivers. I now had full control over the Overland unit using Retrospect backup.

I use to have a Atto ExpressPCIProUL2 (UL2D) in the Xserve prior to purchasing the UL4D. With the UL2D, we kept losing scsi connection to our Overland Storage tape drive. Sometimes SCSI connection loss for up to a week, had to keep power cycling the Xserve to try and get connection to the tape unit and functioning again. Obviously there is a compatibility issue with the ATTO cards and OS 10.2.8. To reaffirm this I have built an AGP Graphics Mac running OS9.2.2 and put in the old UL2D card without installing any drivers. In Apple system Profiler I could see the UL2D card as well as the overland unit connected to it. I am also doing excellent backups with Retrospect obtaining performance speeds of up to 630 MB/min over a network and no messages stating 'cannot obtain scsi id.'

This unfortunately does not solve my problem and that is to have the new card I have just purchased working in my OSX server 10.2.8. I have tried to zap the PRAM on the Xserve and this still made no difference. I have logged backed in as root and removed attotexpresspci14.kext and reinstalled the current driver, again no luck.

Obviously it's any OSX version earlier than Panther that is having issues from my testing.

Do you have any suggestions. I have sent off this information to ATTO and will be interesting to see if anyone else has had this issue. At least now I have found the problem, half the battle won I guess.

regards,

Dave.