Troubleshooting guide

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ATTO ExpressSAS Troubleshooting Guide for Mac OSX 10.4.x

This document describes troubleshooting techniques that can be used to identify

and resolve issues associated with the ATTO ExpressSAS Raid controller.

Some of these techniques may seem simplistic or overly obvious, but these are

the ones that are commonly overlooked and can take several hours of frustration

to find. It is important to only try one technique at a time. While changing

multiple variables may seem to be a time saver, it usually complicates the

troubleshooting process.

A.) Mac OSX 10.4.x

Æ The computer will not boot when the ExpressSAS Raid controller is installed.

 The ExpressSAS Raid controller may be improperly seated. Power down the

computer and reseat the card.

 Try putting the ExpressSAS Raid controller in a different PCIe slot.

 Make sure that the controller, is installed in a slot configured as x8.

 Zap the PRAM (command+option+P+R) at boot. Allow to chime 3 times.

 Disconnect any SAS/SATA devices from the ExpressSAS Raid controller and

reboot the computer. If this resolves the issue, investigate the SAS/SATA cables

and SAS/SATA target device(s) as described in the section below.

 If the computer still does not boot, try installing the ExpressSAS Raid controller in

a different computer. If the ExpressSAS Raid controller works in the new

computer, report this as a possible interoperability issue between the

ExpressSAS Raid controller and the computer. If the problem follows the

ExpressSAS Raid controller, replace it with a new controller.

Æ With the ExpressSAS Raid controller installed, my system stops and displays a

flashing question mark.

 This is an indication that the MAC is not able to find an OS to boot from.

 Use a CD or some other source to boot from and make sure the startup disk is

correctly defined in "System Preferences" "Startup disks".

 ATTO’s ExpressSAS Raid controller currently does not support booting from a

SAS drive(s). This will be included in a future release.

Page 1 of 9 ATTO Technology, Inc. July 12, 2007

Summary of content (9 pages)

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ATTO ExpressSAS Troubleshooting Guide for Mac OSX 10.4.x This document describes troubleshooting techniques that can be used to identify and resolve issues associated with the ATTO ExpressSAS Raid controller. Some of these techniques may seem simplistic or overly obvious, but these are the ones that are commonly overlooked and can take several hours of frustration to find. It is important to only try one technique at a time.
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Æ The ExpressSAS Raid controller is installed in the computer but it does not appear in the System Profiler. The ExpressSAS Raid controller may be improperly seated. Power down the computer and reseat the card. Check for the correct installation of the driver. Always verify that you are using the latest version. If you are unsure about what the latest version is, check the ATTO Tech website for the current versions available. (www.attotech.
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may give a clue as to the root cause of the issue. If a drive LED remains on when the computer freezes, suspect a problem with that drive. Æ The system profiler recognizes the ExpressSAS Raid controller, but it does not detect any of the connected SAS devices. Check cable integrity. Check the cables for solid connections. Investigate the SAS/SATA device for power. If available, connect to the device’s management feature and run any diagnostic test(s) available.
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Investigate the SAS/SATA device for power. If available, connect to the device’s management feature and run any diagnostic test(s) available. Watch the LED indicators on the SAS/SATA devices before, during, and after startup. Drive lights should also flash at startup as the SAS/SATA port is scanned. This may give a clue as to the root cause of the issue. If a drive LED remains on when the computer freezes, suspect a problem with that drive. Try another SAS/SATA cable.
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corrupted. Try downloading the image file from the support section of the website again. If this still does not work, check to see if there is a newer version ATTO Configuration Tool and driver. If so, make these updates first then try flashing the controller. Æ The software application being used to communicate with the attached SAS/SATA devices reports communication errors. Check your cables. There could be slight damage to one conductor causing intermittent failures.
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of controller. B.) Error Log Capabilities The ATTO ExpressSAS Driver does not use the system log to communicate driver events to the user. The system log has very limited resources and events are easily lost. Instead, the driver logs events internally until they are retrieved using the ATTOExpressSASRaid log utility.
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0x40 0x80 Log resource usage failures. Log informational messages. System NVRAM Options A system NVRAM environment variable, atto-args-esasraid, can be used to pass options to the ExpressSAS2 driver. The options are as follows: -d -e mask Disable the driver. Specify the hexadecimal mask 'mask' for event logging. See Section B for more details. -f Load the driver in 'flash-only' mode. You will be able to use the ATTO Configuration Tool to update the , but devices will not be visible.
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sudo nvram atto-args-esasraid="[options]" where [options] are listed above. If you are not the root user, you will be prompted for an administrator password. 3. Reboot the system for the changes to take effect. C.) Escalating issues to Tech Support. When an error is encountered, please insure you have an answer to each of the following questions when reporting it as an issue: ANSWERED QUESTION 1. Computer Model: 2. Operating System: 3. OS Patch Level: 4. PCI slot # and type: 5. ATTO driver version: 6.
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12. How duplicable is the error? Does the error occur sporadically/randomly, or can it be reproduced each and every time? 13. If the system was working previously, what changed about the configuration? Page 9 of 9 ATTO Technology, Inc.