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WINNT.TXT
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Installation Guide for the LSI Logic Fusion-MPT (TM) Driver:
SYMMPI.SYS V1.09.xx
This file describes the features and use of the LSI Logic Fusion-MPT
SCSI/Fibre Channel device driver for the Windows NT 4.0 operating system
environment. It is divided into the following sections:
Introduction for Windows NT 4.0
Features
LSI Logic Devices Supported
Description
Installing the Driver(s)
New System Installation
CD-ROM Installation
Boot Floppy Installation
Existing System Installation
Performance Tuning for Windows NT 4.0
Large Block Size Support
Maximum Number of Concurrent I/Os
Miniport Driver Configuration Options
Troubleshooting
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1.0 Introduction for Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT is an operating system designed to run on processors using current
technology. It provides a graphical user interface environment incorporating
many high-level features (refer to the Microsoft Windows NT documentation
for details). An I/O manager handles I/O requests in Windows NT.
Class drivers for hard disk, optical, CD-ROM, printer, and scanner
peripherals are provided in Windows NT.
Other class drivers, provided by peripheral manufacturers, may be added to
support new devices. Tape device support is built into the operating system
itself and does not require a class driver. LSI Logic and Microsoft provide a
miniport driver, called SYMMPI.SYS, to complete the path to the LSI Logic
controller or processor with an optional SCSI or Fibre Channel BIOS.
LSI Logic uses the same filenames for their drivers for different Windows
operating systems. The driver files are packaged either in separate
subdirectories based on the Windows operating system or on different disks.
To determine the driver file for Windows NT 4.0, note that the filename
ends with .SYS. For example, this driver is SYMMPI.SYS.
To determine the operating system version, go into Windows Explorer, display
the driver file, right click on the filename, click on Properties, and click
on the Version tab. Click on the Internal Filename in the lower section.
For Windows NT 4.0, the filename appears as filename (NT4).
The next sections describe this driver and its installation.
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1.1 Features
The LSI Logic Fusion-MPT device driver contains these features:
o Supports 320 Mbytes/s parallel SCSI transfers (for LSI453C1020
and LSI53C1030)
o Supports Integrated Mirroring (TM) technology (for LSI453C1020
and LSI53C1030)
o Supports PCI and PCI-X bus protocols (for LSI53C1020 and LSI53C1030)
o Supports 2 Gbaud Fibre Channel transfers (for LSIFC929X, LSIFC919X, LSIFC929, and LSIFC919)
o Supports LSI Logic MPT common software interface
o Supports multiple host adapters
o Supports multiple Logical Unit Numbers (LUNs)
o Supports Scatter-Gather
o Supports SCSI pass-through functionality
o Supports disk array configurations with no LUN 0
o Supports disk array configurations with non-contiguous LUNs
o Auto request sense
o Maximum block size support: 1 Mbyte
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1.2 LSI Logic Devices Supported
The SYMMPI.SYS driver is named "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI MiniPort Driver." It
supports the following devices and their associated host adapters:
o LSI53C1020
o LSI53C1030
o LSIFC929X
o LSIFC929
o LSIFC919X
o LSIFC919
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1.3 Description
The SYMMPI.SYS driver meets the Microsoft specification for miniport drivers.
This driver allows connection of parallel SCSI and Fibre Channel devices
including disk drives, CD-ROMs, and tape drives for PCI and PCI-X based
machines. To support a different SCSI or Fibre Channel device type, the
Windows NT architecture requires that a class driver for that type of device
be present (usually supplied by Microsoft, or possibly by the peripheral
manufacturer). No changes to SYMMPI.SYS are required. This driver supports only
Windows NT 4.0 and all subsequent Service Packs.
A Windows application passes SCSI commands directly to the parallel SCSI or
Fibre Channel Protocol devices by using the SCSI pass-through facility.
This facility allows applications to directly control and access devices by
filling in a data structure and calling into the port or class driver. Refer
to the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 documentation for more details.
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2.0 Installing the SYMMPI.SYS Driver
This procedure installs the SYMMPI.SYS driver onto a new or existing Windows NT
system. Depending upon the media used to distribute LSI Logic drivers (web or
CD-ROM), you will create a driver diskette.
Copy the files listed in this section to the root directory of a clean
diskette as shown below. Label this diskette "Windows NT Driver Diskette".
You will use this diskette during the installation process.
\txtsetup.oem
\symmpi.sys
\symmpi.tag
\symmpi.inf
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2.1 New System Installation
This procedure installs the SYMMPI.SYS driver onto a Windows NT 4.0 system.
Use this procedure when installing Windows NT 4.0 onto an unused drive.
Windows NT 4.0 automatically adds the driver to the registry and copies
the driver to the appropriate directory.
Choose one of two methods to install these drivers onto a Windows NT 4.0
system.
1. Boot directly from the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM
-or-
2. Use Windows NT 4.0 Boot Floppy Diskettes.
Different steps are required depending on the method used. The CD-ROM
Installation and Boot Floppy Diskette Installation procedures are listed
below. Select the appropriate installation for your system.
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2.1.1 CD-ROM Installation
1. Have the driver diskette available for inserting into the A: drive when
prompted. Depending upon the media used to distribute the drivers (web
or CDROM), you will create a driver diskette.
Important: Read Steps 2 and 3 before performing the instructions contained
within these steps.
2. Start the Windows NT 4.0 installation by booting from the Windows NT CD-ROM:
The system BIOS must support booting from a CD-ROM. BIOS settings may need
to be changed to allow CD-ROM booting.
3. Press the F6 key when the screen displays "Windows NT Setup."
This must be done or else the new driver will not be recognized.
Note: Be sure to press the F6 key as any driver loaded later in the
installation process is not recognized by Windows NT Setup.
If F6 is not pressed, all devices controlled by the drivers are
not available during Windows NT setup.
4. Choose S to specify an additional device when the screen displays "Setup
could not determine the type of one or more mass storage devices...."
NOTE: If this screen is not displayed as the first user input, then the F6
keypress was not seen by the setup program. Reboot the system and
try again.
The system prompts for the manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk.
5. Insert the appropriate driver diskette containing the Windows NT driver
required to support your LSI Logic adapter(s) and press Enter.
6. "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI MiniPort Driver" is shown highlighted.
Press Enter to proceed.
Note: Current Windows NT 4.0 drivers can be downloaded from the LSI Logic web
site at http://www.lsilogic.com/support. After you are connected to this
web site, go to the "Download Center". Select the product category, then
the appropriate product. A bullet in the Drivers section will display all
driver packages associated with the product selection.
7. Windows NT 4.0 should now recognize the Miniport driver and the LSI
Ultra320 SCSI or Fibre Channel hardware. Press Enter to continue.
8. Follow the Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 installation procedure at this point.
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2.1.2 Boot Floppy Disk Installation
1. Have the driver diskette available for inserting into the A: drive when
prompted. Depending upon the media used to distribute drivers (web or
CDROM), you will create a driver diskette.
Important: Read Step 2 before performing the instructions contained
within this step.
2. Start the Windows NT 4.0 installation by booting from the Microsoft Setup
floppy diskette.
3. Press Enter when the Welcome to Setup screen appears.
The Windows NT 4.0 Workstation Setup window appears next.
4. Press S to skip automatic detection and do manual selection. A screen
displays the message "Setup has recognized the following mass storage
devices in your computer..."
5. Choose S to configure additional adapters when a screen displays the
adapters found.
6. Move the highlight bar to Other and press Enter.
The system prompts for the manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk.
7. Insert the appropriate driver diskette containing the Windows NT driver
required to support your LSI Logic adapter(s) and press Enter.
NOTE: Current Windows NT 4.0 drivers can be downloaded from the LSI Logic
web site at http://www.lsilogic.com. After you are connected to this
web site, place your cursor on the Get Drivers option in the menu bar.
Click on the Drivers selection. Choose the Windows NT operating system
for either SCSI or Fibre Channel and click on the Go button. Follow
the instructions on subsequent screens to download the drivers.
8. "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI MiniPort Driver" is shown highlighted.
Press Enter to proceed.
9. The Windows NT Workstation Setup window reappears. If using an IDE
CD-ROM for installation, press S to load additional drives. Another
window appears. Scroll up and select:
"IDE CD-ROM (ATAPI 1.2)/PCI IDE Controller"
Press Enter.
-or-
If you have completed configuring additional adapters, press Enter.
10. Upon exiting, a screen displays the message "Setup will load support for
the following mass storage devices(s). Press Enter to continue. This
message implies that Windows NT recognizes the miniport driver and the
SCSI or Fibre Channel hardware.
At this point, simply follow the Microsoft Windows NT installation
procedure.
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2.2 Existing System Installation
To install the SYMMPI.SYS miniport driver, follow these steps:
1. Boot Windows NT 4.0 and log on as Administrator.
2. Click on the Start button. Move to Settings-->Control Panel and click.
3. Double click on SCSI Adapters.
4. Click on the Drivers tab.
5. Click Add. A list of installed adapters is displayed.
6. Click the Have Disk button. When prompted, insert the Windows NT Driver
Diskette.
7. Enter or type the path to copy manufacturer's files from:
A:\
Select OK. The Install Driver menu should have the driver name "LSI Logic
PCI SCSI/FC MPI MiniPort Driver" highlighted.
8. If it is not highlighted, select it. Choose OK.
At this point, the following message may occur:
"The driver(s) for this SCSI Adapter are already on the system. Do you
want to use the currently installed driver(s) or install new one(s)?"
Selecting Current uses the driver already on the system, and selecting New
uses the driver on the diskette.
9. Choose New unless you want to use the older version already on the system.
If you chose Current, go to step 11.
10. Verify if the path to the OEM SCSI Adapter files reads:
A:\
If not, enter or type it as shown above. Select Continue.
11. Remove the diskette from your A: drive.
The System Settings Change message displays "You must restart your computer
before the new settings take effect. Do you want to restart your computer
now?".
12. Click on the Yes button to restart and reboot NT. If you choose Cancel,
remember that you must restart the computer to load the new driver.
Note: If more than one LSI Logic driver needs to be installed, additional
drivers can be installed one after the other without rebooting for
each one. Installation order is not important.
13. Reboot your computer to load the new miniport driver(s).
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2.3 Performance Tuning for Windows NT 4.0
Windows NT 4.0 has registry entries that can be used to tune the performance
of SCSI I/O for certain configurations. The tunable parameters are large
transfer block size support and a guaranteed number of concurrent I/Os for a
particular SCSI bus.
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2.3.1 Large Block Size Support
The SYMMPI.SYS drivers can support up to a 1 Mbyte transfer size in Windows
NT 4.0; however, the default Windows NT 4.0 transfer size is 64 Kbytes. To
enable better performance, the driver installation process adds a registry
entry to enable a maximum 256 Kbytes transfer size. The mpi_256K.reg file
can be used to set or re-enable a 256 Kbytes maximum, or it can be edited to
set other desired maximum transfer sizes. There are two methods to add this
registry setting.
1. Locate the mpi_256K.reg data file (supplied with the driver files) using
Windows Explorer and double-click on the file.
-OR-
2. Type at the command prompt:
regedit mpi_256K.reg
This inserts an entry in the registry to enable 256 Kbytes block size support.
Editing the mpi_256K.reg can set any maximum block size between 64 Kbytes and
1 Mbyte. The formula to calculate the proper value for MaximumSGList is:
MaximumSGList = [(Maximum Block Size)/4 Kbytes] + 1
For 256 Kbytes: 256 Kbytes/4 Kbytes = 64. Add 1 to get 0b65 (decimal) or
0x41 (hexadecimal). The maximum value allowed for MaximumSGLIst is 0b255 or
0xFF. For the particular value of 0xFF, the internal value passed to Windows
is increased to 0x101, allowing support for a full 1 Mbyte transfer. Be sure
to read the information in the mpi_256K.reg data file before editing it.
The system must be rebooted for the new registry setting to be effective.
To reset the maximum block size to the default of 64 Kbytes, follow the
instructions above, except use mpidfblk.reg as the data file.
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2.3.2 Maximum Number of Concurrent I/Os (Guaranteed)
Windows NT 4.0 guarantees a maximum of 32 concurrent I/Os active on a
particular SCSI bus. However, due to the method of memory allocation, the
actual limit of concurrent I/Os can vary greatly between various drivers or
versions of drivers. This can have a huge impact on performance benchmarking
between different driver versions or adapter vendors. In effect, one adapter
may actually be able to have 70 or 80 I/Os outstanding, while another adapter
could only have 32. This can also affect systems with high performance storage
subsystems, such as disk arrays.
To enable better performance, the driver installation process adds a
registry entry to support 128 concurrent I/Os. If a different maximum value is
desired, the file mpi100io.reg can be used to add a registry entry to guarantee
the desired number of concurrent I/Os.
There are two methods to add this registry setting. One is to locate the
mpi100io.reg data file (supplied with the driver files) using Windows Explorer
and double click on the file. The other method is to type at the command
prompt:
regedit mpi100io.reg
This inserts an entry in the registry to guarantee a maximum of 100
concurrent I/Os per adapter.
If a maximum other than 100 is desired, the mpi100io.reg can be edited;
however, setting this value to a high number uses increasing amounts of
non-paged pool memory, a critical NT resource. High values for this setting
can degrade system performance. Be sure to read the information in the
mpi100io.reg data file before editing it.
The system must be rebooted for the new registry setting to be effective.
To reset the guaranteed number of concurrent I/Os to the Windows NT default of
32, follow the instructions above, except use mpidefio.reg as the data file.
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2.3.3 Miniport Driver Configuration Options
The SYMMPI driver is configured to provide optimum performance
in most standard systems. Some non-standard systems may require fine
tuning to obtain peak system memory utilization and performance. After
installation, if less than the advertised functionality and performance are
observed on any platform, please contact LSI Logic support. Go to the LSI
Logic Technical Support Home Page, which is located at:
http://www.lsilogic.com/support/index.html
and call the listed number for assistance.
LSI Logic can provide additional registry settings if required, to customize the
driver for specific systems and applications.
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3.0 Troubleshooting
The SYMMPI.SYS driver will log error messages to the system error log. For
these errors, the system errorlog EventID will be 11, and the specific error
code values will be displayed at offset 0x10. Data should be displayed in
words.
Download Driver Pack
After your driver has been downloaded, follow these simple steps to install it.
Expand the archive file (if the download file is in zip or rar format).
If the expanded file has an .exe extension, double click it and follow the installation instructions.
Otherwise, open Device Manager by right-clicking the Start menu and selecting Device Manager.
Find the device and model you want to update in the device list.
Double-click on it to open the Properties dialog box.
From the Properties dialog box, select the Driver tab.
Click the Update Driver button, then follow the instructions.
Very important: You must reboot your system to ensure that any driver updates have taken effect.
For more help, visit our Driver Support section for step-by-step videos on how to install drivers for every file type.