[Info-vax] Alpha SCSI disks won't mount on integrity

[Rich Jordan]

I'm trying to set up for a large scale move of data from an Alphaserver to a remote newer Integrity; we need to do a bulk move (at a scheduled time) much faster than the intervening networks will allow.   The total transfer will be around 4 terabytes but is able to be stored in savesets (or raw data, TBD) on those 300GB disks.  We do not have tapes for these systems.

I connected a tabletop shelf of U320 Universal 300GB disks in a cabinet to the KZPEA controller in the Alpha, (HP V8.4), initialized them as ODS5 with default settings, created several test backups to different disks, shut down and moved the disks to our test Integrity box here (same model and SCSI controller as will be added to the real system).   The Integrity is running VSI V8.4-2L1, SCSI controller IDs as LSI Logic 1030 U320, and is an HP branded and supported card.

The disks will not mount normally on the integrity; it reports them as offline.  I can mount them /foreign, and I can read them (dumping blocks) in that state, but doing a normal mount fails.  No errors reported.

We can set up a NAS device instead, stage the backups and ZIP them then transfer to SAN and reverse that on the other end; that is more time and steps, though it is our alternative  (just moving one server to the other's site is not possible, and we don't have shadow licenses at either end to use that option, even if the SCSI problem didn't kill it).

I could swear I read about similar behavior in the past but haven't found reference to it (which may mean it was in the mass of data HPe is taking offline).  Any thoughts on why this is happening and if theres a way to use the disks is appreciated.  I _know_ these universal disks worked on older RX servers in the same shelves but those were built on the servers.