[Info-vax] SCSI2SD storage - was: Replacing SCSI disks in PS433AU for VMS
John H. Reinhardt
johnhreinhardt at thereinhardts.org
Tue Oct 6 03:02:01 EDT 2020
On 10/6/2020 1:46 AM, John H. Reinhardt wrote:
> On 10/6/2020 12:13 AM, Dave Froble wrote:
>>
>> Ok, I decided I was getting lazy, so I purchased one of the SCSI2SD devices. V6 rev 2020a along with a 16 GB SanDisk card.
>>
>> Got the device, no documentation. Ok, the fun begins.
>>
>
> Documentation is scarce, but what's available is here: <http://www.codesrc.com/mediawiki/index.php/SCSI2SD>
>
>
>> First test is in a VAXstation 4000 Model 90. I assumed there would be a SCSI ID issue, and there was. So I changed the RZ26 ID to 1, and both devices showed up in SHOW DEVICE at the >>> prompt. What is interesting is the device showed up as 3.04 GB. I'm assuming the VAXstation console had a problem with 16 GB.
>
> If you haven't run the configuration utility there is some default, I don't remember what it is. I don't believe it auto sizes and it may be around 4GB.
>
>>
>> I found some info, seems there is a configuration utility for WEENDOZE (I guess) to set SCSI ID and some other things. I've not yet found info on how to connect the device to a WEENDOZE system.
>
Sorry, I missed that. There is a Micro-B USB port on the SCSI2SD card. You plug a USB cable from whatever system you're running the configuration utility on (see below) into that port and the utility then programs the card. It also allows your PC/Mac/Linux computer to access the SD card via the USB port. It's slow but you can even copy data to any given "disk" on the SCSI2SD memory card via the USB port.
> Downloads for firmware updates and configuration utilities are here: <http://www.codesrc.com/files/scsi2sd-v6/latest/>
>
> There are configuration utilities for Windows, Mac and Linux. I've only used the Mac utilities.
>
>>
>> I booted the RZ26, VMS V7.2 booted. INITed the SCSI2SD, mounted it, and it showed up with a bit over 31 million blocks, so that's 16 GB if I can still do some math.
>>
>> I then did an IMAGE backup from the RZ26 to the SCSI2SD, worked fine, then booted the SCSI2SD device. It's running now, no apparent problems.
>>
>
> I've got a V5 in a MicroVAX 3100 M95 and a V6 in each of two AlphaServer DS10's so far no problems. I have one more V5 for use in my PDP-11 but I'm still putting that system together.
>
>> As mentioned above by Chris, perhaps the device will not be reliable enough for anything serious, but for casual use, why not? If I do an IMAGE BACKUP to elsewhere every night, I'd guess a restore to a new SD card would be enough security for the storage. I don't know anything about the SD cards. I'm hoping reading is not an issue. Won't be so much writing.
>>
>
> Reliability will depend on what SD card you get. Buy the cheap knock offs and they may die without warning. I've been using the SanDisk "industrial" or "High Endurance" versions designed for security systems or dashboard cams. The industrial have lower capacities because they use more cells for each bit which gives them the higher chance of lasting. The High Endurance have a wear leveling algorithm to spread the writes over different parts of the memory array. My theory with them is that buy one that's larger than what you want and only use part of it allowing the wear leaving to spread writes over the whole memory array, writing fewer times to any one place. So if you want a 16GB disk ( or total combination of disks if you make the SCSI2SD have more than one partition) then buy a 32GB or even 64GB card using only 16GB. Even a 64GB card is only $15 so it's not going to break the bank. This is theory so I'll let you know in a year or so how it works out in my DS10's
> and MicroVAX.
>
> SanDisk Industial MLC 16GB - <https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07CV344WJ>
> SanDisk "High Endurance" 64GB - <https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07P3D6Y5B>
>
>
>> Wondering if anyone has any info on the SD cards to make a guess how much writing they will take before they die?
>>
>> So, perhaps a way forward for home/casual/hobbyist use of old VAXs?
>
> Or Alphas or PDPs
>
>>
>> My next test will be on an AlphaStation 200 system, and after that an EV6 system. I'll report here what I find.
>>
>
> Here is the "show device" from the SRM console on one of my DS10's. I have a 64GB card broken up into two 24GB drives and 5 800MB CD sized drives. With the configuration utility you can set several text fields that can help identify things. I set one to SCSI2SD6 for my V6 card, the size of the partition and the firmware version.
>
>>>> show dev
> dka100.1.0.17.0 DKA100 FUJITSU MAP3735NC 5608
> dka200.2.0.17.0 DKA200 FUJITSU MAP3735NC 5608
> dkb0.0.0.117.0 DKB0 SCSI2SD6 24GB 631
> dkb100.1.0.117.0 DKB100 SCSI2SD6 24GB 631
> dkb200.2.0.117.0 DKB200 SCSI2SD6 800MB 631
> dkb300.3.0.117.0 DKB300 SCSI2SD6 800MB 631
> dkb400.4.0.117.0 DKB400 SCSI2SD6 800MB 631
> dkb500.5.0.117.0 DKB500 SCSI2SD6 800MB 631
> dkb600.6.0.117.0 DKB600 SCSI2SD6 800MB 631
> dqa0.0.0.13.0 DQA0 PLEXTOR DVDR PX-716A 1.11
> dva0.0.0.0.0 DVA0
> ega0.0.0.16.0 EGA0 00-10-18-0C-82-E4
> egb0.0.0.116.0 EGB0 00-10-18-0C-82-E5
> ewa0.0.0.9.0 EWA0 00-10-64-30-19-84
> ewb0.0.0.11.0 EWB0 00-10-64-30-19-85
> pga0.0.0.3004.0 PGA0 WWN 1000-0000-c943-b66a
> pgb0.0.0.3005.0 PGB0 WWN 1000-0000-c943-b66b
> pka0.7.0.17.0 PKA0 SCSI Bus ID 7
> pkb0.7.0.117.0 PKB0 SCSI Bus ID 7
>
>
This article is for Amiga, but a lot of the ideas are the same if you're wondering how to do things. <https://grimore.org/hardware/amiga/using_scsi2sd_drives>
Here is an article talking about ways to set up partitions on the SD card. On my Mac I've used the fdisk utility to create the partitions so the SD card looks like a hard drive with 7 partitions of the desired sizes. That way when I mount it each partition on the card shows up as a separate disk on my Mac and I can dd direct to that partition without worrying about telling dd to skip records to get to partitions after the first one.
<http://llamamusic.com/s50s550/microSD_Partitioning.html>
--
John H. Reinhardt
More information about the Info-vax
mailing list