Silverback Systems Inc. Release Notes iSNAP2110 iSCSI HBA Storport Miniport Windows Driver iSNAP2110 iSCSI HBA Linux Driver Version 1.10 (Build Number 3.0.56.4) Date: 10/06/2006 OS Support: - Windows Server 2003 SP1 or later (x86 and amd64) - Linux 2.6.9 and later (x86 and amd64) in a source form - The following Linux distributions are supported in binary a form: RHELv4 x86_64 2.6.9-34ELsmp RHELv4 i386 2.6.9-34.ELsmp RHELv4 i386 2.6.9-34.ELhugemem SuSE 10.0 x86_64 2.6.13-15.8-smp SuSE 10.0 i586 2.6.13-15.8-smp SuSE 9.3 x86_64 2.6.11.4-21.11-smp SuSE 9.3 i586 2.6.11.4-21.11-smp ================= TABLE OF CONTENTS ================= 1. Overview 2. Enhancements 3. Bug Fixes 4. Known Problems, Bugs, Limitations 5. Additional Notes 6. Contacting Silverback Systems ==================================================================== 1. Overview ----------- The following document provides a short overview of the Windows miniport and Linux device drivers version 1.10 for the iSNAP2110 HBA. For installation, configuration and user guidelines, refer to the iSNAP2110 HBA Getting Started Guide, Windows and and Linux Installation and User Guide documents, as well as iSNAP2110 iSCSI SAN Boot Installation and User Guide provided as a part of this release. Note: it is highly recommended to run iSNAP2110 Drivers with Microsoft Initiator Service 2.02 or later, due to various bugs fixed in that version. ==================================================================== 2. Enhancements --------------- This version of iSNAP iSCSI Initiator Drivers provides iSCSI SAN Boot functionality. ==================================================================== 3. Bug Fixes ------------ None. ==================================================================== 4. Known Problems, Bugs, Limitations ------------------------------------ - The iSNAP2110 HBA Windows driver installation/update may freeze the screen and the mouse for 10-20 sec, the server will continue to function normally after that. - Enabling serial port output in the iSNAP2110 HBA Boot configuration GUI may prevent the server from booting via iSNAP2110 HBA on certain platforms. - Upon driver update iSNAP2110 HBA may be shown as the last bootable device by the BIOS, while it was used for boot before the driver upgrade. Fix iSNAP2110 HBA boot order in the server BIOS GUI. Server BIOS upgrade will cause the problem to go away. - Downgrade of the drivers from version 1.1x to version 1.0x can't be performed if the iSNAP2110 HBA is used for boot. - Driver upgrade completion requires two steps: first the new driver is installed. When the machine reboots, the installed driver will update the Expansion ROM. Another reboot is necessary to have the new Expansion ROM to take the effect. - The iSNAP2110 HBA BIOS Boot Configuration GUI sometimes freezes after the screens show up. This problem is usually caused by KVM switches. Press the [Ctrl] button to unfreeze the screen. - Hibernation/Crash dump of servers booted via the iSNAP2110 HBA are not supported. This will be fixed in the future. - Diskless installations is not supported for Windows/Linux, i.e. before migrating the server to boot from iSCSI SAN via iSNAP2110 HBA, the OS image should have iSNAP2110 HBA drivers installed. - If for whatever reason, the system does not boot over iSNAP, it does not proceed to the next boot device automatically. You have to press any key to proceed to the next boot device. This is the intended behaviour so that the user will be aware that boot over iSNAP2100 HBA has failed and server proceeds to boot from the next bootable device. Misconfiguration is the main reason for the above mentioned behavior. - When the iSNAP2110 HBA is configured for SAN Boot, the system crashes if the image on the server has the /opt/isnap-3.0/etc/ifcfg* files for the interfaces of the HBA over which the boot session is running, in the case server is booting Linux OS. Before booting over SAN, from the Linux image sitting on the Target LUN, remove the files /opt/isnap-3.0/etc/ifcfg* files for the HBA over which the boot session runs. It is highly recommended to configure the HBA used for boot only via the iSNAP BIOS SAN Boot GUI and NOT via ifcfg* files or ifconfig. - In cases of a heavy (> 1%) packet loss on the network, if the SCSI commands do not complete within than 2.5 minutes, the filesystem of the boot session is mounted as read-only on Linux. If the SCSI commands timeout while it is in the process of booting over SAN, the system may not boot completely. - In case the iSNAP2110 HBA does not show up as a bootable device, try the following steps and check if the problem has been resolved as a result: * Reboot the server * Upgrade server BIOS * Move the iSNAP2110 HBA to another PCI-X slots of the server * Try to change the order of the iSNAP2110 HBAs with other PCI-X expansion cards in the system. * Upgrade the BOOT firmware of the iSNAP2110 HBA (Please, contact Silverback for instructions regarding this process) If none of the above steps help and you are using Dell PowerEdge servers, then it is a known issue with the Dell PowerEdge servers and we are working with Dell to resolve the issue. - This release of the Microsoft Windows driver supports only a single iSNAP2110 HBA in the system. The second iSNAP card inserted into the system will not be accessible. This issue will be resolved in future driver release. - The iSNAP2110 Driver for Windows Server 2003 SP1 may not work on machines with 4 GBytes or more memory installed in them. The reason is a bug in MSiSCSI Service/storport.sys (confirmed by Microsoft). The fix should be available from Microsoft later this year. - Linux driver removal/re-install (rmmod/insmod) may fail if the iSCSI operation/traffic is not stopped. Run the following commands: 'cd /opt/isnap-3.0/etc; ../bin/sbconfig -e terminateISM' before removing the driver. Note, these operations are allowed only when the iSNAP2110 HBA is NOT used for boot. - Segmentation fault on terminateISM command of the sbconfig utility in a re-opened session. This problem is caused by a bug in the Linux kernel, which have been fixed in 2.6.15: http://groups.google.com/group/fa.linux.kernel/browse_frm/thread/689e3d9746d64b4b/90a60d5ae32c5440?lnk=st&q=device_del+sysfs_hash_and_remove+SCSI&rnum=2#90a60d5ae32c5440 It is allowed to issue the following sbconfig commands for the session: new, open, close, and remove, while the following command sequence may cause a crash: new, open, close, open, close, and remove. - For Linux device configuration, udev should be used on SuSE 10 & RHEL v4 and devlabel on SuSE 9.3. - iSNAP drivers support only ERL0 and a single connection per session; markers are not supported. - iSNAP drivers support only IPv4 protocol, IPv6 will be added in future driver releases. - Ethernet PHY will not establish a link with PHYs that do not auto-negotiate. - The iSNAP2110 HBA supports only full-duplex Ethernet Link operations (it will not work when linked to a hub.) - Pause Frame Timer. The iSNAP2110 will pause for twice as long as the configured value in the pause frame timer register. - Pause Frame Reception. The iSNAP2110 will currently receive and respond to pause frames sent to the broadcast address. - Pause Frame Transmission. Both iSNAP2110 ports currently share a common pool of receive buffers. Once this pool hits a low threshold mark, pause frames will be generated and sent out to both iSNAP2110 ports at a rate specified by the pause timer which is currently every 33ms. The pause frames will be sent until the pool is replenished above the minimal threshold mark. ==================================================================== 5. Additional Notes ------------------- None. ==================================================================== 6. Contacting Silverback Systems -------------------------------- Please visit Silverback Systems' website: (http://www.silverbacksystems.com). On this site, you will find product information, the latest drivers and links for technical assistance if needed. ==================================================================== Copyright (c) 2006 Silverback Systems Inc. Corporation. All rights reserved.