From owner-freebsd-isp Thu May 23 06:47:22 1996 Return-Path: owner-isp Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id GAA12924 for isp-outgoing; Thu, 23 May 1996 06:47:22 -0700 (PDT) Received: from cello.QNET.COM (cello.qnet.com [204.107.78.2]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with SMTP id GAA12907; Thu, 23 May 1996 06:47:19 -0700 (PDT) Received: by cello.QNET.COM (Smail3.1.29.1 #1) id m0uMakP-0003ioC; Thu, 23 May 96 06:48 PDT Message-Id: Date: Thu, 23 May 96 06:48 PDT To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org, freebsd-isp@freebsd.org From: Chris Linstruth Subject: FreeBSD: SCSI hangs, panics and other failures as nntp server Sender: owner-isp@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Dear FreeBSD-Hardware (and ISP): We at qnet have been attempting to use FreeBSD as a Usenet News server for about a year. We are at this time evaluating other alternatives because we have been unable to achieve the stability required under this kind of load. We are perfectly satisfied with 2.1.0-RELEASE's performance as a Domain Name Server, mail hub, and W3 (apache) server. We have built several different machines based on the AHA-1542, NCR83C510, and the most recent being an AHA-2940 (AIC7870). We have been unable to build a system that does not suffer from: SCSI Bus hangs - (you can switch VTs etc, but anything accessing any SCSI device terminally hangs. Telnetting in results in a connection but no login prompt, but characters echo. You know what I'm talking about. Random Reboots Device Timeouts - with 2.1.0-RELEASE. We just upgraded to the 2.2-960501-SNAP and now we're getting reboots instead of system hangs. (detailed in kern/1157) Is there anything we can do? We've replaced every component including SCSI cables, terminators, etc. We've tried external SCSI cabinets, all internal devices, and combinations of both. We would certainly like to continue using FreeBSD for all our subsystems, including Usenet. Where should we look next? Would another host adapter (Buslogic?) solve all our problems? If you were going to buy a new PCI host adapter for a FreeBSD system what would it be? What hardware deficiency would typically cause these symptoms? Does the -stable kernel contain anything related to this that the 960501 snapshot does not? Thanks in advance for *any* assistance. (A project for today includes recompiling a kernel with the appropriate debug options available, so that info should be available soon.) ---------- The Hardware: FreeBSD 2.2-960501-SNAP #0: Wed May 1 14:09:30 1996 jkh@time.cdrom.com:/usr/src/sys/compile/GENERIC Calibrating clock(s) relative to mc146818A clock ... i586 clock: 99463645 Hz, i8 254 clock: 1193062 Hz CLK_USE_I8254_CALIBRATION not specified - using default frequency CLK_USE_I586_CALIBRATION not specified - using old calibration method i586 clock: 0 Hz CPU: Pentium (99.46-MHz 586-class CPU) Origin = "GenuineIntel" Id = 0x525 Stepping=5 Features=0x1bf real memory = 33554432 (32768K bytes) avail memory = 30466048 (29752K bytes) Probing for devices on PCI bus 0: chip0 rev 1 on pci0:0 chip1 rev 2 on pci0:7:0 piix0 rev 2 on pci0:7:1 ahc0 rev 0 int a irq 11 on pci0:19 ahc0: aic7880 Single Channel, SCSI Id=7, 16 SCBs ahc0 waiting for scsi devices to settle (ahc0:0:0): "FUJITSU M2694ES-512 812A" type 0 fixed SCSI 2 sd0(ahc0:0:0): Direct-Access 1033MB (2117025 512 byte sectors) (ahc0:1:0): "FUJITSU M1606S-512 6226" type 0 fixed SCSI 2 sd1(ahc0:1:0): Direct-Access 1041MB (2131992 512 byte sectors) (ahc0:2:0): "SEAGATE ST15230N 0298" type 0 fixed SCSI 2 sd2(ahc0:2:0): Direct-Access 4095MB (8386733 512 byte sectors) (ahc0:3:0): "Quantum XP34300 81HB" type 0 fixed SCSI 2 sd3(ahc0:3:0): Direct-Access 4101MB (8399520 512 byte sectors) Probing for devices on the ISA bus: sc0 at 0x60-0x6f irq 1 on motherboard sc0: VGA color <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x0> ed0 at 0x280-0x29f irq 3 maddr 0xd0000 msize 16384 on isa ed0: address 00:00:c0:97:b7:7a, type WD8013EPC (16 bit) ed1 not found at 0x300 fe0: disabled, not probed. sio0: disabled, not probed. sio1: disabled, not probed. sio2: disabled, not probed. sio3: disabled, not probed. lpt0 at 0x378-0x37f irq 7 on isa lpt0: Interrupt-driven port lp0: TCP/IP capable interface lpt1 not found at 0xffffffff lpt2 not found at 0xffffffff mse0: wrong signature ff mse0 not found at 0x23c psm0: disabled, not probed. fdc0 at 0x3f0-0x3f7 irq 6 drq 2 on isa fdc0: NEC 72065B fd0: 1.44MB 3.5in wdc0: disabled, not probed. wdc1: disabled, not probed. bt0 not found at 0x330 uha0 not found at 0x330 aha0 not found at 0x330 aic0 not found at 0x340 nca0 not found at 0x1f88 nca1 not found at 0x350 sea0 not found wt0: disabled, not probed. mcd0: disabled, not probed. mcd1 not found at 0x340 matcdc0 not found at 0x230 scd0 not found at 0x230 ie0 not probed due to maddr conflict with ed0 at 0xd0000 ep0: disabled, not probed. ix0: disabled, not probed. le0: disabled, not probed. lnc0 not probed due to I/O address conflict with ed0 at 0x280 lnc1: disabled, not probed. ze0: disabled, not probed. zp0: disabled, not probed. npx0 on motherboard npx0: INT 16 interface apm0: disabled, not probed.