BusLogic FlashPoint PCI SCSI Host Adapter Driver
For NetWare 3.1x
Version 1.28
I. Introduction
===============
This README file contains compressed installation instruction and
notes on configuring tunable paramenters for the BusLogic FlashPoint PCI
NetWare 3.1x device driver. For more detailed installation instruction
and other information, please refer to the manual included with the
software package.
II. Installation
================
FLASHP3X.DSK, BusLogic's Netware v3.11 and v3.12 device driver supports
BusLogics' FlashPoint Family of PCI SCSI host adapters.
In Addition to standard Netware disk support, the driver provides the
following features:
1) Removable device support (including fixed disk, MO, and CD-ROM)
2) ASPI support
3) Scatter/gather support
4) SCSI Tagged Queuing Support
ASPI Support
------------
BusLogic ASPI Support manager - ASPITRAN.DSK - provides shared ASPI
support. When FLASHP3X.DSK loads, it will attempt to autoload ASPITRAN.DSK
if it is not already loaded. The loaded ASPITRAN.DSK module need not be
the one supplied by BusLogic - shared ASPI support (with other host adapter
vendors) is supported.
Netware 3.12 Installation from CDROM
------------------------------------
To successfully install Netware 3.12 from a given CDROM device, you MUST
use the BusLogic Netware 3.12 driver "Exclude_IDs=" switch (documented
below) for the CDROM drive from which you are installing. Once
installation is completed, you may modify your Netware startup.ncf
file and remove the "Exclude_IDs=" switch for this device if you
wish to use it under Netware 3.12 in conjunction with Novell's
CDROM.NLM nlm.
III. Command Line Switches
==========================
BusLogic's FlashPoint NetWare Disk Device Driver supports the
following command line switches:
Exclude_IDs= - If you wish to exclude one or more Disk or CDROM SCSI
devices from being reported to Netware when they are
found by the BusLogic driver, you may use this option
to do so. These devices can then be reserved for ASPI
Netware applications such as:
- Disk array software which needs to present
several SCSI devices as a single logical device
to the operating system
- 3rd party software controlling CDROM devices
through an ASPI interface
To specify which devices to hide on this host adapter,
enter one or more SCSI target IDS separated by commas.
For example:
load FLASHP3X Exclude_IDs = 1,2
This would hide SCSI target 1 and target 2 from the
operating system.
Enable_TQ - Tagged Queuing is an advanced SCSI-II feature which
allows overlapped commands to a SCSI device, thus
enhancing performance. The BusLogic SCSI Host Adapters
provide support for this feature. However, many
SCSI devices do not, and both the host adapter and the
SCSI device must support Tagged Queuing in order to
take advantage of this feature.
The BusLogic SCSI Disk Driver defaults to Tagged
Queueing DISABLED for all devices on all BusLogic
Host Adapters. Use the ENABLE_TQ switch to enable
Tagged Queueing on a given BusLogic Host Adapter:
load FLASHP3X Enable_TQ
This will only affect those SCSI devices connected to
this Host Adapter which also support Tagged Queueing.
The maximum number of Tagged requests outstanding is
specified by MaxActive switch described below.
MaxActive= - This switch is provided for backward compatibility.
BusLogic recommends using the AutoMax switch (see
immediately below) instead. The MaxActive switch
allows you to modify the maximum number of outstanding
requests per device allowed at any one time:
load FLASHP3X MaxActive=2
Modification of this parameter will allow you to tune
the driver for maximum performance based on your
specific configuration. Valid values are 1 through 60.
If this switch is not specified, the default value is 1.
If you specify the MaxActive switch in conjunction with
the Enable_TQ switch, the MaxActive switch will actually
control the maximum number of Tagged Queue requests
outstanding:
load FLASHP3X Enable_TQ MaxActive=4
If you specify the MaxActive switch without specifying
the Enable_TQ switch, the MaxActive switch will actually
control the maximum number of non-tagged requests
outstanding (queued at the Host Adapter, rather than
at the device level). For some Disk Array applications,
assignment of larger values to MaxActive may result in
optimal performance.
In the absence of this switch, the driver will either
use the default value of 1 (in many cases, best
performance may be achieved by using the default) or
will use a built-in auto-adjusting performance-optimizing
algorithm.
LongTimeout - This switch allows you to increase the amount of time
the driver's watchdog timer routine will wait before
attempting to abort a CCB which has not finished. The
default (if this switch is not invoked) is 10 seconds.
If the switch is invoked, the timeout value is increased
to 60 seconds. Only special hardware applications which
anticipate long periods of time during which a device
may remain busy will find this switch useful. In
general, it should be ignored.
load FLASHP3X LongTimeout
No_Rescan - This switch should be used in conjunction with ASPI
applications when specifically recommended by the ASPI
software vendor/supplier. Otherwise, it should be
IGNORED.
*** ASPI Developers *** :
This switch has the effect of causing the ASPI Get
Device Type SRB to return table-driven information
about the devices detected during an initial scan.
Using the switch will inhibit the ASPI manager
from going back out on the SCSI bus to look for the
specified device on behalf of this SRB type. The
absence of the switch causes the ASPI manager to
issue a SCSI inquiry on behalf the the specified
device.
load FLASHP3X No_Rescan
Verbose - This switch has the effect of enabling display
information about specific driver configuration options.
load FLASHP3X Verbose
NumLuns - This switch specifies the number of Logical Units
(LUNs) the host adapter will support (try to detect).
If the switch is not specified, the default is 1.
Valid range is from 1 to 64. If the host adapter
only has embedded SCSI targets attached (that is,
all attached devices are at LUN 0), it is recommended
to set this option value to 1 to turn off LUN support
for LUNS other than 0.
load FLASHP3X NumLuns=1
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.