File Name: SYMMPINT.TXT LSI Logic Fusion-MPT (TM) Driver: SYMMPI.SYS V1.08.00 CONTENTS --------- 1.0 Overview 2.0 Change history 3.0 Installation and setup instructions 4.0 Configuration information 5.0 Unattended mode 6.0 Web sites and support phone number 7.0 Trademarks and notices 8.0 Disclaimer 1.0 Overview: This file describes the features and use of the LSI Logic Fusion-MPT small computer interface (SCSI) device drivers for the Windows NT 4.0 operating system environment. 1.1 Overview about this code: None. 1.2 Limitations: None. 1.3 Enhancements: The SYMMPI.SYS miniport driver supports 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 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 1.4 Level of recommendations and prerequisites for the Update: None. 1.5 Dependencies: None. 2.0 Change history -------------------- 1.08.04 o Fixed hibernation issues o Fixed Windows Blue Screen for LSI FW 1.00.03 or greater 1.08.00 New release. 3.0 Installation and Setup Instructions ----------------------------------------- 3.1.0 Introduction for Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT is an operating system designed to run on Intel-architecture processors using current technology. It provides a graphical user interface (GUI) environment incorporating many high-level features. Refer to the Microsoft Windows NT documentation for details. An input/output (I/O) manager handles I/O requests in Windows NT. To address a SCSI peripheral, the I/O manager goes through the appropriate drivers. Windows NT provides class drivers for hard disk, optical, CD-ROM, printer, and scanner peripherals. Other class drivers, provided by peripheral manufacturers, may be added to support new devices. Tape device support is built into the operating system and does not require a class driver. Microsoft provides the port driver and LSI Logic provides the miniport driver,called SYMMPI.SYS. This driver completes the path to the LSI Logic controller or processor with an optional SCSI 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, 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 Properties, and click on the Version tab. Finally, click the Internal Filename in the lower section. For Windows NT, the filename appears as filename (NT4). The next sections describe these drivers and their installation. 3.1.1 Features The SYMMPI.SYS miniport driver supports 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 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 3.1.2 LSI Logic devices supported The name of the SYMMPI.SYS driver is "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI Miniport Driver" It supports the following devices and their associated host adapters: o LSI53C1020 (LSI20320) o LSI53C1030 (LSI21320, LSI22320) 3.1.3 Description The SYMMPI.SYS driver meets the Microsoft specification for miniport drivers. This driver allows connection of parallel SCSI devices including disk drives, CD-ROMs, and tape drives for PCI and PCI-X based machines. To support a different SCSI 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. The driver supports only Windows NT 4.0 and all subsequent Service Packs. A Windows application passes SCSI commands directly to the parallel SCSI 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 documentation for more details. 3.2.0 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 \oemsetup.inf 3.2.1 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. The method for installing Windows NT 4.0 on a new system involves using a CD-ROM. Refer to the Microsoft document for installing Windows NT 4.0 using boot floppy diskettes. 3.2.1.1 CD-ROM installation 1. Begin the Windows NT installation by starting from the Windows NT 4.0 CD-ROM: The system BIOS must support starting from a CD-ROM. BIOS settings may need to be changed to allow CD-ROM starting. 2. Press the F6 key to install the SYMMPI.SYS driver 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. 3. 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 the setup program does not display this screen first for user input, the setup program did not recognize pressing the F6 key. Restart the system and try again. The system prompts for the manufacturer-supplied hardware support disk. 4. Insert the appropriate driver diskette containing the Windows NT driver required to support your LSI Logic adapter(s) and press Enter. Note: You can go to the IBM Support Web site at http://www.ibm.com/pc/support/ to check for the current Windows NT drivers. 5. "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI MiniPort Driver" is shown highlighted. Press Enter to proceed. 6. Windows NT 4.0 should now recognize the Miniport driver and the LSI Ultra320 SCSI hardware. Press Enter to proceed. 7. Follow the Microsoft Windows NT installation procedure at this point. 3.2.2 Existing system installation This procedure installs or upgrades the SYMMPI.SYS drivers onto an existing Windows NT system. 1. Restart Windows NT 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 "Have Disk" and type the path to the driver. After the path to the driver has been established, click OK. 7. The Install Driver menu should have the driver name "LSI Logic PCI SCSI/FC MPI MiniPort Driver" highlighted. 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. 8. Choose New then verify if the path to the driver. 9. Click on the Yes button to restart Windows NT. 3.2.3 Performance tuning for Windows NT 4.0 Windows NT 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 assured number of concurrent I/Os for a particular SCSI bus. 3.2.3.1 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. Also, the mpi_256K.reg file can be used to set or re-enable a 256 Kbytes maximum, but it can be edited to set other maximum transfer sizes that you want. 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 for 65 (decimal) or 0x41 (hexadecimal). The maximum value allowed for MaximumSGLIst is 255 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 restarted 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. 3.2.3.2 Maximum number of concurrent I/Os (Assured) 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. In order to enable better performance, the driver installation process adds a registry entry to support 128 concurrent I/Os. If a different maximum value is not what you want, the file mpi100io.reg can be used to add a registry entry to guarantee the number of concurrent I/Os that you want. 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 what you want, 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 restarted for the new registry setting to be effective. To reset the number of concurrent I/Os to the default of 32, follow the instructions above, except use mpidefio.reg as the data file. 3.2.3.3 Miniport driver configuration options The SYMMPI driver is configured by default to provide optimum performance in most standard systems. Some non-standard systems may require some fine tuning to obtain peak system memory utilization and performance. After installation, if less than advertised functionality and performance is 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 can provide additional registry settings if required, to customize the driver for specific systems and applications. 3.3.0 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. 4.0 Configuration Information ------------------------------- 4.1 Include any configuration installation: None. 4.2 Configuration Settings: None. 4.3 Hardware Status and Information: None. 5.0 Unattended Mode ------------------------------- 5.1 Steps for unattended mode: None. 6.0 WEB Sites and Support Phone Number ---------------- 6.1 IBM Support Web Site: http://www.ibm.com/pc/support 6.2 IBM Support Telephone Numbers: http://www.ibm.com/planetwide/ 7.0 Trademarks and Notices ---------------------------- 7.1 The following terms are trademarks of the IBM Corporation in the United States or other countries or both: IBM 7.2 Intel trademarks or registered trademarks are trademarks of Intel Corporation. Microsoft and Windows NT are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States, other countries, or both. 7.3 Other company, product, and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others. 8.0 Disclaimer ---------------------------- 8.1 THIS DOCUMENT IS PROVIDED "AS IS" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND. IBM DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES, WHETHER EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND MERCHANTABILITY WITH RESPECT TO THE INFORMATION IN THIS DOCUMENT. BY FURNISHING THIS DOCUMENT, IBM GRANTS NO LICENSES TO ANY PATENTS OR COPYRIGHTS. 8.2 Note to Government Users Note to U.S. Government Users -- Documentation related to restricted rights -- Use, duplication or disclosure is subject to restrictions set forth in GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corporation.