Nekonomicon - Winnili

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of SATA in O2 with ARS-2160H at April 12, 2013, 12:41 p.m...

Interesting thread, but won't it ultimately be limited to the O2's slower SCSI bus speed? (Not to spoil things by pointing out something ‘obvious’, I still really like this idea. Anything that involves the prolonged use of SGI gets my approval!)

How easy and practical, or even possible, would it be to add an Ultra-3/Ultra160 HBA inside the O2 and to which degree would the O2's overall bandwidth deal with it acceptably? And which of which, if any, work inside the O2? Routing a cable to the disk riser/backplane would be a bit tricky, I'd imagine...

I should note that I've never owned an O2 (although it's never too late for that, bust just saying), so I'm just curious and wondering.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of FS: Digital Multia/UDB VX40, VX42 and extras at April 15, 2013, 4:02 p.m...

Digital Equipment Corporation Multia/UDB VX40 and VX42. The former is a 166-MHz DECchip 21066/LCA4 system with the maximal 256 Mbytes RAM, SCSI HBA and more. The latter is mainly the motherboard with the 233-MHz DECchip 21068/LCA4 processor and with RAM (of unknown quantity, I think about 128 Mbytes) in all the slots. The latter is, needless to say, the fastest Alpha-powered Multia/UDB ever made, to my knowledge (and ignoring the unsupported [?] “300 MHz” setting). Untested and even more so, rare .

Along with that, I can also provide a later generation SCSI HBA (for in the PCI riser slot) with a conveniently chained, 50-pin, SCSI cable and a (rare?) 3½" HDD bracket. In fact, I also have an entire case, with a questionable PSU (with connectors that have to be re-soldered).

I have pictures and can also look up the exact part numbers, but I'm very busy at the moment. Best is to contact me.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of SATA in O2 with ARS-2160H at April 16, 2013, 1:02 a.m...

jan-jaap wrote:

I've got a QLA2342 in my O2 . That's a dual 2Gb/s FC card capable of close to 400MB/s throughput (with a suitable array attached). First of all, the 64bit, 33MHz PCI bus of the O2 limits this to ~ 200MB/s. But real (diskperf) numbers are well below that, IIRC 60-70MB/s.

I'm aware of PCI bus, its functioning, variations and speeds.

Quote:

Ultra-3 is LVD. Roughly speaking, SE SCSI (what the O2 has) requires 16 data lines plus ground, and LVD requires 16 differential pairs.

Yes, I'm aware...

Quote:

So, this would require a redesign of the O2 mainboard and backplane. If you're going to do this, would you please raise the performance limitations of the chipset and allow for faster CPUs' and more RAM while you're at it? :mrgreen:

I meant more by adding some type of PCI bus expansion card (and naturally saturating the bus speed in the process).

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of SATA in O2 with ARS-2160H at April 17, 2013, 7:29 a.m...

jan-jaap wrote:

I'd like to get my hands on one of those GIO64 FC cards, see how far you can push an Indigo2

That sounds interesting. Do you have more information about them? I haven't heard of that until now, except (the somewhat related) FDDI.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of Alpha (AXP) benchmarking at April 28, 2013, 2:12 a.m...

Anyone interested in participating? In terms of concrete benchmarks, I'm talking about a combination of SSL and NBench for Digital/Tru64 (a.k.a. OSF/1) UNIX and the fairly well-known ‘ VUPS ’ and Pi-calculation benchmarks for VMS AXP.

Mostly relevant, from a performance perspective, would be DECchip 21164 / EV5 (incl. e.g. 21164A/EV56), 21264 / EV6 (incl. e.g. 21264A/EV67, 21264B/EV68AL and 21264C/EV68CB) and 21364 / EV7 , etc. results. Most emulators nowadays are at least 21164/EV5 and upwards, it seems.

Make sure to mention what kind of system you benchmarked. For instance, the benchmarks in this thread were performed on a virtual quad-processor 833-MHz DECchip 21264B/EV68AL AlphaServer ES40 with 32 Gbytes RAM running Compaq Tru64 UNIX V5.1B (Rev. 2650) and HP OpenVMS AXP V8.4 (vanilla, without SYSGEN, SYSUAF, etc. tuning of quotas and such).

To start with the SSL MD5 and RSA speed tests, with my own results and in my case it's OpenSSL 0.9.6g as prepackaged with Tru64 UNIX V5.1B:

Code:

  $ openssl speed md5
  
  Doing md5 for 3s on 8 size blocks: 6324114 md5's in 2.98s
  
  Doing md5 for 3s on 64 size blocks: 3383849 md5's in 3.00s
  
  Doing md5 for 3s on 256 size blocks: 1365261 md5's in 3.02s
  
  Doing md5 for 3s on 1024 size blocks: 481872 md5's in 3.00s
  
  Doing md5 for 3s on 8192 size blocks: 68543 md5's in 3.00s
  
  OpenSSL 0.9.6g [engine] 9 Aug 2002
  
  built on: Thu Aug 15 02:59:23 EDT 2002
  
  options:bn(64,64) md2(int) rc4(ptr,int) des(idx,cisc,4,long) blowfish(idx)
  
  compiler: cc -DTHREADS -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -DNO_ASM -DNO_IDEA -DNO_RC5 -DNO_HW_KEYCLIENT -pthread -std1 -O4 -readonly_strings
  
  The 'numbers' are in 1000s of bytes per second processed.
  
  type              8 bytes     64 bytes    256 bytes   1024 bytes   8192 bytes
  
  md5              16958.52k    72188.78k   115858.61k   164478.98k 187168.09k

Code:

  $ openssl speed rsa
  
  Doing 512 bit private rsa's for 10s: 14981 512 bit private RSA's in 10.00s
  
  Doing 512 bit public rsa's for 10s: 140036 512 bit public RSA's in 10.00s
  
  Doing 1024 bit private rsa's for 10s: 3358 1024 bit private RSA's in 10.02s
  
  Doing 1024 bit public rsa's for 10s: 20731 1024 bit public RSA's in 10.00s
  
  Doing 2048 bit private rsa's for 10s: 589 2048 bit private RSA's in 10.00s
  
  Doing 2048 bit public rsa's for 10s: 9983 2048 bit public RSA's in 10.00s
  
  Doing 4096 bit private rsa's for 10s: 101 4096 bit private RSA's in 10.03s
  
  Doing 4096 bit public rsa's for 10s: 7048 4096 bit public RSA's in 10.00s
  
  OpenSSL 0.9.6g [engine] 9 Aug 2002
  
  built on: Thu Aug 15 02:59:23 EDT 2002
  
  options:bn(64,64) md2(int) rc4(ptr,int) des(idx,cisc,4,long) blowfish(idx)
  
  compiler: cc -DTHREADS -DDSO_DLFCN -DHAVE_DLFCN_H -DNO_ASM -DNO_IDEA -DNO_RC5 -DNO_HW_KEYCLIENT -pthread -std1 -O4 -readonly_strings
  
  sign    verify    sign/s verify/s
  
  rsa  512 bits   0.0007s   0.0001s   1498.1  14003.6
  
  rsa 1024 bits   0.0030s   0.0005s    335.2   2073.1
  
  rsa 2048 bits   0.0170s   0.0010s     58.9    998.3
  
  rsa 4096 bits   0.0993s   0.0014s     10.1    704.8

NBench is based on an old BYTE magazine benchmark; the sources are available and can be found here . Build with DEC/Compaq C (“cc”) under Digital/Tru64 UNIX, you'll have to edit the makefile. If not (like instead with GNU C, in case you may — for whatever reason — not have anything other than that at your disposal), please do specify. Once built successfully, simply run with or without “-v” flag like I did below:

Code:

  $ ./nbench
  
  BYTEmark* Native Mode Benchmark ver. 2 (10/95)
  
  Index-split by Andrew D. Balsa (11/97)
  
  Linux/Unix* port by Uwe F. Mayer (12/96,11/97)
  
  TEST                : Iterations/sec.  : Old Index   : New Index
  
  :                  : Pentium 90* : AMD K6/233*
  
  --------------------:------------------:-------------:------------
  
  NUMERIC SORT        :          553.74  :      14.20  :       4.66
  
  STRING SORT         :          82.289  :      36.77  :       5.69
  
  BITFIELD            :       3.441e+08  :      59.03  :      12.33
  
  FP EMULATION        :          30.498  :      14.63  :       3.38
  
  FOURIER             :           10204  :      11.61  :       6.52
  
  ASSIGNMENT          :          11.731  :      44.64  :      11.58
  
  IDEA                :          2884.7  :      44.12  :      13.10
  
  HUFFMAN             :          953.06  :      26.43  :       8.44
  
  NEURAL NET          :          6.3537  :      10.21  :       4.29
  
  LU DECOMPOSITION    :          220.99  :      11.45  :       8.27
  
  ==========================ORIGINAL BYTEMARK RESULTS==========================
  
  INTEGER INDEX       : 30.305
  
  FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 11.068
  
  Baseline (MSDOS*)   : Pentium* 90, 256 KB L2-cache, Watcom* compiler 10.0
  
  ==============================LINUX DATA BELOW===============================
  
  CPU                 :
  
  L2 Cache            :
  
  OS                  : OSF1 V5.1
  
  C compiler          : cc
  
  libc                :
  
  MEMORY INDEX        : 9.331
  
  INTEGER INDEX       : 6.460
  
  FLOATING-POINT INDEX: 6.139
  
  Baseline (LINUX)    : AMD K6/233*, 512 KB L2-cache, gcc 2.7.2.3, libc-5.4.38
  
  * Trademarks are property of their respective holder.

(I only configured one CPU for this test, since it shouldn't be SMP/SMT optimized anyway.)

Now for the VUPS measurement, here's the DCL procedure source:

Code:

  $! ------------------------------------[TOF]------------------------------------
  
  $! CALCULATE_VUPS
  
  $! Use at your own risk.
  
  $!
  
  $ SET NOON
  
  $ cpu_multiplier = 10 ! VAX = 10 - Alpha/AXP = 40
  
  $ cpu_round_add = 1 ! VAX = 1 - Alpha/AXP = 9
  
  $ cpu_round_divide = cpu_round_add + 1
  
  $ init_counter = cpu_multiplier * 525
  
  $ speed_factor = 1 ! to increase no. of loops on fast CPUs
  
  $ 9$:
  
  $ init_loop_maximum = 205 * speed_factor
  
  $ start_cputime = f$getjpi(0,"CPUTIM")
  
  $ loop_index = 0
  
  $ 10$:
  
  $ loop_index = loop_index + 1
  
  $ IF loop_index .NE. init_loop_maximum THEN GOTO 10$
  
  $ end_cputime = f$getjpi(0,"CPUTIM")
  
  $ IF end_cputime .LE. start_cputime + 1 ! not enough clock-ticks = CPU too fast
  
  $ THEN
  
  $ speed_factor = speed_factor + 1 ! increase no. of loops
  
  $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT "INFO: Preventing endless loop (10$) on fast CPUs"
  
  $ GOTO 9$
  
  $ ENDIF
  
  $ init_vups = ((init_counter / (end_cputime - start_cputime) + -
  
  cpu_round_add) / cpu_round_divide) * cpu_round_divide
  
  $ IF init_vups .LE. 0
  
  $ THEN
  
  $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT "Calibration error -> exiting (Please report this problem)"
  
  $ SHOW SYMB speed_factor
  
  $ SHOW SYMB init_vups
  
  $ SHOW SYMB init_counter
  
  $ SHOW SYMB end_cputime
  
  $ SHOW SYMB start_cputime
  
  $ SHOW SYMB cpu_multiplier
  
  $ SHOW SYMB cpu_rounding
  
  $ SHOW CPU
  
  $ EXIT
  
  $ ENDIF
  
  $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT " "
  
  $ loop_maximum = (init_vups * init_loop_maximum) / ( 10 * speed_factor )
  
  $ base_counter = (init_counter * init_vups) / 10
  
  $ vups = 0
  
  $ min_vups = %X7FFFFFFF
  
  $ max_vups = 0
  
  $ avg_vups = 0
  
  $ times_through_loop = 0
  
  $ 20$:
  
  $ start_cputime = f$getjpi(0,"CPUTIM")
  
  $ times_through_loop = times_through_loop + 1
  
  $ loop_index = 0
  
  $ 30$:
  
  $ loop_index = loop_index + 1
  
  $ IF loop_index .NE. loop_maximum THEN GOTO 30$
  
  $ end_cputime = f$getjpi(0,"CPUTIM")
  
  $ IF end_cputime .LE. start_cputime
  
  $ THEN
  
  $ new_vups = 0 ! can not calculate VUPS (CPU too fast)
  
  $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT "INFO: Loop too fast (20$) - ignoring VUPS data"
  
  $ ELSE
  
  $ new_vups = ((base_counter / (end_cputime - start_cputime) + -
  
  cpu_round_add) / cpu_round_divide) * cpu_round_divide
  
  $ ENDIF
  
  $ IF new_vups .LT. min_vups THEN $ min_vups = new_vups
  
  $ IF new_vups .GT. max_vups THEN $ max_vups = new_vups
  
  $ avg_vups = avg_vups + new_vups
  
  $ IF new_vups .eq. vups THEN GOTO 40$
  
  $ vups = new_vups
  
  $ IF times_through_loop .LE. 5 THEN GOTO 20$
  
  $!! WRITE SYS$OUTPUT "INFO: Preventing endless loop 20$"
  
  $ 40$:
  
  $ vups = avg_vups / times_through_loop
  
  $ write sys$output " Approximate System VUPs Rating : ", -
  
  vups / 10,".", vups - ((vups / 10) * 10), -
  
  " ( min: ", min_vups/10,".", min_vups - ((min_vups / 10) * 10), -
  
  " max: ", max_vups/10,".", max_vups - ((max_vups / 10) * 10), " )"
  
  $ EXIT
  
  $! ------------------------------------[EOF]------------------------------------

Simply execute this (with my results also) like shown below:

Code:

  $! "cpu_multiplier = 10" & "cpu_round_add = 1"
  
  $ @VUPS
  
  Approximate System VUPs Rating : 408.8 ( min: 408.8 max: 408.8 )

Code:

  $! "cpu_multiplier = 40" & "cpu_round_add = 9"
  
  $ @VUPS
  
  Approximate System VUPs Rating : 1600.3 ( min: 1594.0 max: 1603.0 )

Lastly, the Pi-calculation benchmark, assemble the SYS$EXAMPLES:MACRO64$PI.M64 (delivered with VMS) like for instance as follows:

Code:

  $ MACRO /ALPHA_AXP /OBJECT=PI SYS$EXAMPLES:MACRO64$PI
  
  $ LINK PI
  
  $ RUN PI

(You can also find a VMS AXP V7.3-2 and upward compatible compiled and linked executable image, here .)

40,000 digits is the goal, like proposed and used by Migration Specialties. Preferably use this DCL procedure:

Code:

  $ T = F$CVTIME(F$TIME(),,"SECONDOFYEAR")
  
  $ RUN PI
  
  40000
  
  $ T = F$CVTIME(F$TIME(),,"SECONDOFYEAR") - T
  
  $ WRITE SYS$OUTPUT "Computed in ''T' sec"

Execute as such, with my own result below:

Code:

  $ @PI
  
  How many digits do you want to compute? Computing PI with 40000 digits
  
  Computed in 12 sec

See also this resource , as an additional reference.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of Alpha (AXP) benchmarking at April 28, 2013, 4:45 a.m...

Thanks for posting those results. What kind of processor and how much RAM you have in that AlphaServer 1000A? Also, which version of VMS do you run?

You also reminded me that I forgot to run VUPS in those two ways. I just did and updated my original post.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of Alpha (AXP) benchmarking at May 4, 2013, 7:09 a.m...

Thanks for the additional information.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of Old Alias and Wavefront apps screenshots... at June 12, 2013, 2:49 p.m...

Thanks Fötz for the new information and screenshots!

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of VMS End of life at June 12, 2013, 6:43 p.m...

HP finally put an end to VMS, in other words: VMS an end of a waste of my life. I guess I should be thankful that they didn't drag it out too much, because it was (indeed) obvious that things were going nowhere. Even Tru64 UNIX, butchered many years ago, is in several areas more up to date than VMS currently is.

I'm so extremely glad I sold nearly all of my “AXP” and “I64” systems off, except a few Multia/UDB s (but luckily there's still, say, NetBSD/alpha).

To conclude this post, one big fuck you to my favorite scumpany HP.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of Mac Pro 2013 at June 12, 2013, 7:07 p.m...

The beauty is, the obedient Apple-buying creatures will reach for their wallets once more. ( Marketing'u akbar! ?) I still see them thanking their lord and savior Jobs, even in an unsolicited advertisement recently. This comes straight from the spam:

Quote:

we love Steve Jobs -- thank you Steve!!

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of Newsfront V12 Scans at June 20, 2013, 5:11 a.m...

That's amazing, I don't recall this so this is (sort of) ‘new’ for me. Thanks for sharing, I really appreciate it as I always do.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of VMS End of life at July 2, 2013, 5:40 a.m...

Want to try HP 3000? Well, good luck with that .

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
From W. Europe
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 6:37 a.m.

Wrote on the subject of octane randomly freezes at July 3, 2013, 12:48 p.m...

It sure does look like it, especially the (very recognizable) stock ‘lens flare’ effect! Nice find, also the rest of that YouTube channel. Thanks for sharing once more!

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of FS: Digital Multia/UDB VX40, VX42 and extras at July 4, 2013, 12:15 p.m...

SAQ wrote:

That's the self-immolation jumper.

That's just about any jumper, with the stock ‘cooling’...

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of So I nabbed a 164LX Alpha board... at July 29, 2013, 12:09 p.m...

Sounds like you maximized it nicely.

Did you fix the board into a chassis in the meantime? Speaking of which, I was also wondering about these boards — with all the modern liquid cooling setups, especially the fairly safe internal circuit ones — if one could ‘overclock’ such a board with a certain custom cooling setup. (Although that might be a bit of a pricey experiment...)

Did you also give Tru64 UNIX a try on it? There's a good deal of software for it like OpenOffice (which, last time I checked, isn't even available for some ‘live’ UNIX operating systems like HP-UX, for what it's worth). I have a bunch of PCI cards (like a NIC, soundcard, etc.) which should be fully Tru64 UNIX compatible and even got them to work inside an officially unsupported (or barely supported) system like the Multia/UDB.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of FC I/O, “fx” and volume header woes at Aug. 7, 2013, 10:28 a.m...

Recently I acquired a 4-Gbit FC-AL storage enclosure (a Huge Systems/Ciprico MediaVault 4210, to be precise) and attached it to an LSI dual-port 4-Gbit FC (LSI7204XP-LC) HBA.

The disks, or rather the volumes, are recorded in the output of “hinv” and shown to be connected to the HBA channels. The array volume size is about ~1250 Gbytes per channel (and as such, as far as I recall, this shouldn't be even close to exceeding any IRIX XFS storage boundaries/limits). Furthermore, the volumes are set up with 512 bytes per block.

However, when I proceed with “fx” the trouble starts. First I get a weird, unspecified, ‘I/O error’ (same for both channels, which are independently supplied from the enclosure; two independent RAID-0 arrays, to be precise). After that, I can see things like volume sizes. Anyway, then (still in “fx”, or “fx -x” actually) I also get the warning that the ‘volhdr’ exceeds 2 Gbytes.

I don't have any serial console logs to share at the moment, or yet. For that I'll have to fire up the system and the storage enclosure. But, can anyone perhaps guess what I may have run into? (In other words and roughly speaking, does this sound familiar?)

Any help will be greatly appreciated.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of FC I/O, “fx” and volume header woes at Aug. 25, 2013, 8 a.m...

jan-jaap wrote:

Did you update the LSI firmware? See man lsflash, the LSI7204XP uses the '949' firmware.

Yes, actually, already months ago and it worked fine with another FC enclosure (although 2-Gbit, unlike this disk array).

Quote:

There's an upper limit of 2TB per LUN, the limits of XFS are in the exabyte range I think.

I remembered that correctly then...

Quote:

[1] I have my Tezro hooked up to a SAN server (IBM DS4300, similar to SGI TP9300). Using the same LSI7204XP-LC adapters, btw. The DS4300 allows me to set the client OS when exporting a LUN. It offers about a dozen OSes, including IRIX. Anything like that in your unit?

Sadly, no. For such a relatively popular and renown brand (amongst its primary target users, in the ‘post-production’ world), it has a rather poor control and configuration interface, not to mention the lacking documentation (well, in my opinion).

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[2] A quick search showed MediaVault 4210s with 10TB of storage. If your array allows LUNs > 2TB, does it offer options to limit volumes to 2TB? It might be serving up 64bit sector numbers (even if the most significant 32 bits are all zero) to IRIX, confusing fx and/or the kernel.

It's actually just 2½ Tbytes total, which therefore puzzles me all the more.

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[3] As a variation on #2: maybe it will use 32bit sector numbers if you limit the total capacity to 2TB? Pull all disks and try with 2 disks on 1 channel?

Even though my total array size shouldn't be more than 2½ Tbytes total (divided over the two channels), I will still try with fewer disks and see what happens.

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[4] Maybe you can configure the array as a JBOD and use IRIX XLV/XVM software to create a volume?

That sadly doesn't seem to be like an option, it's RAID-only by the looks of it. (Otherwise I'd have indeed opted for JBOD.)

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[5] There's a patch that will upgrade the IP35 PROM to revision 6.211. It has to do something with 4Gb FC, but IIRC it had to do with booting over 4Gb FC, so it's probably unrelated.

I vaguely remember reading about that.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 5:37 a.m.
and authored 178 notes

Wrote on the subject of Smallest HPUX/OpenVMS System Ever? at Sept. 4, 2013, 2:41 p.m...

Some people have lives, or just don't have or care to run these dying breed HP monstrosities any longer. They certainly don't look for year-old posts to rake up.

_________________
:Tezro:

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

Winnili
From W. Europe
Who joined Sept. 15, 2012, 6:37 a.m.

Wrote on the subject of WTB DEC Multia stand at Nov. 19, 2013, 4:54 a.m...

I have one.

• Offering various remaining systems and parts, several interestingly compatible with both IRIX and OpenVMS ( AXP and I64 );
• Looking for an SGI O3000 IP59 1-GHz MIPS R16000 quad-processor node board (for a Tezro).

The collected works of Winnili - Page 3