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| author | mike.miller@hp.com <mike.miller@hp.com> | 2005-11-04 12:30:37 -0600 |
|---|---|---|
| committer | James Bottomley <jejb@mulgrave.(none)> | 2005-11-06 14:12:49 -0600 |
| commit | 3da8b713da723e78a03f0404beedf3cc6f4f860b (patch) | |
| tree | a09cc4308fcf0087aa607029bd71825b568d97e5 /Documentation/cciss.txt | |
| parent | 13bf50d1f21b2f11452c4b8a82a91319791f8ba3 (diff) | |
| download | lwn-3da8b713da723e78a03f0404beedf3cc6f4f860b.tar.gz lwn-3da8b713da723e78a03f0404beedf3cc6f4f860b.zip | |
[SCSI] cciss: scsi error handling
This patch adds SCSI error handling code to the SCSI portion
of the cciss driver.
Signed-off-by: Stephen M. Cameron <steve.cameron@hp.com>
Acked-by: Mike Miller <mike.miller@hp.com>
Signed-off-by: James Bottomley <James.Bottomley@SteelEye.com>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/cciss.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | Documentation/cciss.txt | 29 |
1 files changed, 29 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/cciss.txt b/Documentation/cciss.txt index 68a711fb82cf..15378422fc46 100644 --- a/Documentation/cciss.txt +++ b/Documentation/cciss.txt @@ -133,3 +133,32 @@ hardware and it is important to prevent the kernel from attempting to directly access these devices too, as if the array controller were merely a SCSI controller in the same way that we are allowing it to access SCSI tape drives. +SCSI error handling for tape drives and medium changers +------------------------------------------------------- + +The linux SCSI mid layer provides an error handling protocol which +kicks into gear whenever a SCSI command fails to complete within a +certain amount of time (which can vary depending on the command). +The cciss driver participates in this protocol to some extent. The +normal protocol is a four step process. First the device is told +to abort the command. If that doesn't work, the device is reset. +If that doesn't work, the SCSI bus is reset. If that doesn't work +the host bus adapter is reset. Because the cciss driver is a block +driver as well as a SCSI driver and only the tape drives and medium +changers are presented to the SCSI mid layer, and unlike more +straightforward SCSI drivers, disk i/o continues through the block +side during the SCSI error recovery process, the cciss driver only +implements the first two of these actions, aborting the command, and +resetting the device. Additionally, most tape drives will not oblige +in aborting commands, and sometimes it appears they will not even +obey a reset coommand, though in most circumstances they will. In +the case that the command cannot be aborted and the device cannot be +reset, the device will be set offline. + +In the event the error handling code is triggered and a tape drive is +successfully reset or the tardy command is successfully aborted, the +tape drive may still not allow i/o to continue until some command +is issued which positions the tape to a known position. Typically you +must rewind the tape (by issuing "mt -f /dev/st0 rewind" for example) +before i/o can proceed again to a tape drive which was reset. + |