Okay, I'm pulling my hair out now with this external array...

[animeguru]

Update: Never underestimate the smallest detail (like a bad cable) to make the whole house of cards come tumbling down. I would still like to know exactly how termination power works though, if someone would be kind enough to explain it to me.


Alright. Now then. I'm setting up an external SCSI array and I'm running into a bit of difficulty here...

First off, here's what I'm using.

AMI (LSI) MegaRAID Elite 1600
36.7GB IBM Ultrastar 80pin U160 LVD HDD (x8)
- in hot swap bays in the external array pictured here
9.1GB Quantum Atlas 68pin U160 LVD HDD (x10)(internal)
- in main computer pictured here (I'm well aware that it's a mess in there, but since it's still in pieces I'll route cables once I get the whole thing up and running)


So, I got the Quantums hooked up no problem. They were all recognized and I was able to setup RAID arrays on them without any issues. Fairly basic.

Then I go to add my external array. As soon as I connect it to the external connector of the RAID card, none of the HDDs are even recognized, both internal and external. I'm using an active terminator on each end of the cable and termination on the RAID card has been disabled on the channel with the external array.

All the drives have unique IDs, and I even skipped ID 7 which is used by the RAID card.

I tried connecting only the external array with the active terminator on one end of the cable and the RAID adapter configured to provide termination on the other end. That didn't work.

This leads me to believe that the external array is what's causing the problem, but I don't see how. As noted in the pic I linked, the IBMs are all in hot swap bays, so I'm thinking that the problem lies within them. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find out who actually manufactures the bay itself, so I can't explore that route.

There are jumpers on the rear of the bays, but the silk screening on the PCB shows them as regular boring stuff... active LED, power led, spindle sync, etc.

At this point I'm completely open to any suggestions. Most of this stuff was free, so its not like I'm out any money (well a couple of bucks for an external cable and a terminator) but I will be heartbroken if it doesn't work.

Also, I've been scouring the documentation for the RAID adapter and the only thing I've come across so far that doesn't seem to be ringing any bells is termination power (TermPWR). Perhaps that is where the problem lies. I'm not really 100% on what exactly this entails and it is set to be supplied by the PCI bus currently (factory settings), so if anyone could go into further details, I would greatly appreciate it.


And if all else fails, anyone in the Balt/Wash metro area with good SCSI knowledge that wants to make a few bucks and score some free beer, I'd be happy to go that route as well. Just PM me.

 

[tdg]

To answer you first question termination power (term power) is a small electrical signal thats pushed through the bus which is used to power the resistors at the ends of the bus that provide termination. It's typically done with the SCSI controller, but if the controller doesn't provide it usually drives have a jumper that can be used to provide the term power if needed. You may however need term power supplied by both the controller and the last (physically located) hard drive in the external array to provide a strong enough signal.

Have you tried just connecting the external array and not having the internal Quantums hooked up? Usually all problems I've had with no devices being found or some missing was due to ID conflicts, some devices can be tricky to set them right. Also, how many connectors are on the back of the external array, and if theres multiple ones have you tried using another connector?