SCSI Toolbox :: Newsletter - August 2005
IN THIS EDITION
Just getting started?
iPod winner from SNIA booth announced
Why upgrade to STB v 6.0?
Ask Dr. SCSI - Should I buy enterprise drives from eBay for business?
Just getting started with the SCSItoolbox Suite?
If you're just getting started with the SCSItoolbox Suite, or if you're a seasoned
veteran
the simple navigation provided in this HTML tutorial will help you get started by helping you select the right modules to use for your business needs. Start off by selecting the job that best describes your needs and then you will be directed towards the most
relevant
STB modules and Windows Movie files to quickly get your testing process underway in the most
efficient
way possible.
Click here to get started with the SCSItoolbox Suite Tutorial
iPod Winner from SNIA Booth
Our winner from the SNIA Show business card drop off is Robert Johnson from Qlogic. We'd like to thank all of you who stopped by to visit our booth and took the time to talk with us.
We'll look forward to seeing you all again at the next show!
Why upgrade to STB v 6.0?
In a word, Features! The SCSItoolbox Suite version 6.0 includes a ton of new features and product
enhancements. Read below for the complete list of modules available in the 6.0
version
of the STB Suite.
SCSItoolbox version 6.0 Includes:
• SCSItoolbox32 – The industry's most advanced and widely used testing suite. In use world-wide since 1992, the SCSItoolbox encompasses every tool that you need to test, troubleshoot, configure, and diagnose any SCSI, Fibre Channel (FC), iSCSI, SATA, ATAPI, or SAS device. read more here
• Developer Toolbox – The Developer Toolbox uses our proven interface to access SATA, SAS, SCSI, Fibre Channel, or ATAPI devices from Visual Basic or C++ running on all 32 bit versions of Windows. Linux support using shared library. read more here
• Tape Manufacturing Module – The Tape Manufacturing Module is the easiest to use, most versatile, and fastest tape testing product on the market. A true multi-threaded, multiple host bus adapter, multi-drive screening and testing tool. read more here
• Disk Manufacturing Module – The Disk Manufacturing Module (DMM) is the easiest to use, most versatile, and fastest disk testing product on the market. A true multi-threaded, multiple host bus adapter, multi-drive screening and testing tool. read more here
• Bus Analyzer Module (NEW TO VERSION 6.0) – BAM is a software bus analyzer that can capture, display, and analyze trace data from any peripheral bus, including SCSI, Fibre Channel, IDE, ATA, SATA, and SAS. BAM offers complete versatility as far as choice of phases that are captured and displayed, capture modes to minimize I/O impact, buffer size and capture size, and device(s) to capture trace data from. read more here
• Protocol Control Control (PC2) – The PC2 software from SCSI Toolbox, LLC brings a new level of parallel SCSI protocol control to your test environment. Designed in cooperation with LSI Logic to work with their Fusion-MPT™ Message Passing Interface technology, PC2 allows all negotiated parameters to be displayed or set for all devices connected to any SCSI Host Bus Adapter based on the LSI53C1030 chip set. PC2 also provides the means to generate hardware SCSI bus resets. read more here
• Bus Reset Tool (NEW TO VERSION 6.0) – SCSItoolbox Suite Version 6.0 and higher now offers the Bus Reset Tool which gives you access to a variety of methods to issue bus resets to any peripheral bus accessible to the SCSItoolbox. read more here
• ATA Task Register Commands (NEW TO VERSION 6.0) – SCSItoolbox Suite Version 6.0 and higher has the ability to issue any task register ATA command to any ATA/SATA storage device. This allows test scenarios that include ATA commands that are not implemented in ATAPI such as retrieving SMART data, ATA IDENTIFY data, SEEK, SET MAX ADDRESS, and more. read more here
• Performa – Upgrades and support for SCSItoolbox Suite as well as priority for new product development and enhancements. read more here
Ask Dr. SCSI - DOD disk erase/sanitize standards?
Q. “Dr. SCSI, how can I be sure that the drive
that I am buying for $12 on eBay is robust enough to trust my energy company
customers accounting data with?”
– signed A. Anderson
A. The popularity of online auction sites like eBay has
given birth to a whole new channel for buying and selling SCSI peripherals.
You can easily be an informed buyer by using the SCSItoolbox
to test how hard your device is has to try in order to get your data written
or read. You do this by testing the drive, then examining the LOG
PAGES.
The Sequential Write/Read Test of the entire drive is
a good place to start. Once the test is complete, go to the Disk->Commands->Mode/Log
Page Functions->View Log Pages menu choice. Click on the Browse button,
and select an appropriate .def file for your device. If all else fails,
choose the file default.def.
Double-click on the Write Error Page and the Read Error Page.
Look at the parameters for each of these, and note if the drive shows
that it has been doing error corrections. If it has had to correct as
it reads or writes there may be a problem.
If the drive has a temperature page, you can double-click on that to see
what temperature the drive is running at. Modern high-rpm drives need
lots of airflow to keep happy! Always have some extra
fans blowing across your drives while you are testing. Trust the Doctor
on this - no matter how tasty “baked Barracuda” or “fried
Cheetah” may sound, you don’t want it! Keep all your critters
cool on your workbench while you are testing them.
Your drive may also tell you how many hours it has been powered up. Seagate
drives report this in the Factory Log page. Parameter 0 shows the number
of hours the drive has been powered up. You may have a fairly “new”
drive with lots of power up hours, or you may have an “older”
drive with fewer hours. Just remember what Indy said – “It’s
not the years, it’s the mileage”
Last but not least, when buying drives of unknown pedigree, always check
out the number of Grown Defects. A good rule
of thumb is – if a drive has any Grown Defects,
don’t use it! If your drive has some, try reformatting it, then
retest it. If it still shows any, don’t use it for important data.
Unless the data is for an energy or telcom company, and you’re hoping
that the data just goes away soon... well, you get the picture.
