Provided by: scsitools_0.12-3ubuntu1_amd64 bug

NAME

       scsi-config - query information from a scsi device with a nice user interface

SYNOPSIS

       scsi-config [device]

DESCRIPTION

       scsi-config  queries information from an scsi target with a nice Tcl/Tk user interface. If
       you do not specify a device to query, scsi-config calculates a list of  available  devices
       and prompts it to you.

       By  the  nature  of  a  graphical  user  interface,  most  things  will explain them self.
       Basically, scsi-config shows a list of buttons for certain mode pages which you may press.
       Those  buttons  which  you  can  press  and the text windows with white backgrounds can be
       modified by you and the modifications send back to the device.

       In the main window there is a button to instruct the device to save the data in  some  non
       volatile  memory  (if it supports it). Note that this will instruct the device to save the
       Read-Write Error Recovery Page , Disconnect-Reconnect Page , Format Device Page ,  Caching
       Page  ,  and  Control Mode Page in its NVRAM. Usually saving even a single of those should
       write them all to the NVRAM, but you never know.

       You can query the current, the factory default and the values in the NVRAM (which may  not
       be the current parameters) from the device.

       Not  all  combinations  of  button toggles or all values are valid. In general, try to set
       them and see which values the drive accepts.  scsi-config rereads the device configuration
       immediately, s.t. you see which values where accepted.

       Also note that some disk drives are notched, and that those have an active notch (shown in
       the main window) to which all your settings apply (at least those of notched pages,  which
       are  also  marked  in  slate gray). You can select the active notch to which your settings
       apply (and to which the values refer) in the Notch Page.

       For those devices which do not feature an NVRAM (generally removable media devices) and as
       a kind of backup, you can save the current settings to a file. Actually the file will be a
       /bin/sh script making the necessary scsiinfo(8) calls to set  the  saved  parameters  when
       executed.

       There is also a nice Overview button which will query many details about the disk geometry
       and draw them in a nice picture. This looks esp. nice for drives with many  notches,  that
       is  different  regions  on  the disk with different tracks per sector settings. It is also
       very useful for notched drives as you can immediately  select  the  mode  pages  for  each
       notch.

SOME USAGE GUIDELINES

       1. General Warning
              Generally,  do  not  modify settings you don't understand. It is useful to know the
              SCSI-II specs mentioned below. Some setting may render the device unusable or  even
              damage  it.  Usually  a  power cycle resets the state (if you do not save the weird
              settings in the NVRAM). Some settings affecting the assignment of  logical  sectors
              will render the disk unusable until the next low level format.

       2. On Write Caching
              As  an  old  warning, this does also mean you should not generally switch the write
              cache on.  At least on those drives where you have a choice  at  all.  Reasons  are
              twofold:

              a)     It is a priori unclear when the drive will actually perform the writes. This
                     is a bad thing when considering shutdown of your machine. On the other hand,
                     it seems sensible to assume that the drive will immediately write it's cache
                     to disk when it is idle (after all file systems are unmounted)  and  due  to
                     the  size  of  the  on  disk cache this will usually only need a few seconds
                     after the shutdown (but the drive lamp will  usually  not  glow,  as  it  is
                     mostly  connected  to the host adapter (if you have a lamp at all) and it is
                     not participating).

                     There is a SCSI command to flush the caches. Linux could call  it  prior  to
                     shutting  down,  spinning  a  disk down. Due to my knowledge this is not yet
                     done though.

              b)     As  the  writes  are   performed   asynchronously,   errors   are   reported
                     asynchronously.  The  disk  might  return  an  error  at  some  simple  read
                     instruction  related  to  a  write  which  was   acknowledged   OK   several
                     transactions  ago.  This  generally  confuses  things and makes interpreting
                     errors very difficult. Some devices  are  known/said  to  not  report  write
                     errors in this mode of operation at all.

                     Just  imagine  that  at the point where a file system is unmounted, or a new
                     removable media is detected it could tell: Oops, BTW, there was  some  write
                     error ago although I told you it was OK already.

              Thus,  when  you  run  a disk in write cache mode, keep it in mind when weird error
              messages occur and give the disk time to flush it's buffers at shutdown.  Generally
              it  would be good if you knew more vendor specific details on how the disk operates
              in the write cache mode.

       3. Reassigning Bad Blocks Automatically
              One of the nice features of SCSI disk is  that  they  allow  to  remap  bad  blocks
              automatically  as  they  are  detected  without any user intervention. However, you
              actually have to enable this feature!  It turned out that  you  can  not  generally
              assume  a  disk in this mode. To enable this mode or check the settings, proceed as
              follows:

              a)     Go  to  the  Read-Write  Error  Recovery  Page.    AWRE   (Automatic   Write
                     Reallocation  Enable)  and ARRE (Automatic Read Reallocation Enable) buttons
                     enable the automatic reallocation.

                     In the same window, you can select the maximal retries performed. EER allows
                     the  disk to do some Early Error Recovery which is fast (but might misdetect
                     or miscorrect data).  A  selected  DCR  button  (Disable  CoRrection  Codes)
                     disallows  the disk to use any error correction codes at all (thus the drive
                     will have to retry until it performs an error free read).

                     Usually a sector will be reallocated after even a single read retry  or  the
                     given  number  of failed write retries. When the sector cannot be recovered,
                     it is reallocated but the data is lost and an error is signalled.

                     The other buttons there apply to error reporting as well. TB  Transmits  the
                     bad  Block  together  with the error, RC Reads Continuous, that is, does not
                     pause a read operation while retrying or using error  code  calculations  to
                     recover  a  bad  block  (thus may return bad data). PER lets the disk report
                     even recovered errors (Post ERror), DTE (Disable  Transfer  on  Error)  even
                     breaks a running data transmission when an error is detected.

              b)     Even  when  the  reallocation  is  enabled, the disk must actually have some
                     reserved areas where to remap the bad blocks. The Format Page controls this.
                     Either  a  given  number  of  Alternate Sectors Per LUN is set aside for the
                     whole disk or a given number of tracks is defined to be a zone and for  each
                     zone a number of sectors or tracks is put aside.  These alternate data areas
                     are where bad sectors are remapped.

                     Note that this page is very likely to apply only to the current notch  on  a
                     notched disk device.

                     If  there  are  no, or not many alternate sectors reserved on your disk, you
                     must change these settings.

                     I found that those disks which allow to modify these settings are very often
                     set  to  no  reserved  sectors  at all by the vendors, as this increases the
                     disks capacity. For the sake of stability, you should  really  modify  these
                     settings.

                     If you decide to modify the number of alternate sectors, you must

                     i)     Save the parameters to the NVRAM of the disk.

                     ii)    Low-level  format the disk drive (and not erase the NVRAM during this
                            operation).

                     to make the changes be effective.

              c)     Esp. when you set the disk to not report recovered errors (or when it is  in
                     a  write  cache mode or something), and just as a general guideline, keep an
                     eye on the grown defects list where the disk will report all the  remappings
                     which took place as your disk ages.

                     The  old  adventurers guide line applies: Save (Backup) Early, Save (Backup)
                     Often. Find the right time to replace  your  disk  avoiding  too  much  work
                     recovering your data.

BUGS

       scsi-config  could  be  enhanced  by  making better use of Tcl/Tk. I learned much about it
       during my work on tk_scsiformat(8) and their would be much room for fixes and enhances. On
       other hand, it fulfils it's purpose as it is quite nicely already.

       As  scsi-config  makes  heavy  use  of  scsiinfo(8) all it's bugs (esp. on defect reading)
       apply.

FILES

       /usr/lib/scsi/cache, /usr/lib/scsi/control, /usr/lib/scsi/disconnect, /usr/lib/scsi/error,
       /usr/lib/scsi/format,  /usr/lib/scsi/generic,  /usr/lib/scsi/inquiry, /usr/lib/scsi/notch,
       /usr/lib/scsi/overview, /usr/lib/scsi/peripheral, /usr/lib/scsi/rigid, /usr/lib/scsi/save-
       changes,  /usr/lib/scsi/save-file,  /usr/lib/scsi/tworands,  /usr/lib/scsi/verify  (Tcl/Tk
       subroutines used by scsi-config).
       /dev/sd*
       /dev/sg*
       /dev/scd*
       /dev/st*
       /dev/nst*
       /dev/rmt*
       /dev/nrmt*

SEE ALSO

       scsiinfo(8), scsiformat(8), tk_scsiformat(8), fdisk(8), sd(4),

       Draft proposed
       American National Standard
       for information systems

       SMALL COMPUTER SYSTEM INTERFACE - 2
       (SCSI-2)

       MARCH 9, 1990

AUTHORS

       Eric Youngdale.
       Michael Weller <eowmob@exp-math.uni-essen.de>, Versions 1.5 & 1.7