xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/da.4 (revision 06064893b3c62c648518be78604fac29fc0d9d61)
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2.\"	Julian Elischer <julian@FreeBSD.org>.  All rights reserved.
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26.\" $FreeBSD$
27.\"
28.Dd September 2, 2003
29.Dt DA 4
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm da
33.Nd SCSI Direct Access device driver
34.Sh SYNOPSIS
35.Cd device da
36.Sh DESCRIPTION
37The
38.Nm
39driver provides support for all
40.Tn SCSI
41devices of the direct access class that are attached to the system
42through a supported
43.Tn SCSI
44Host Adapter.
45The direct access class includes disk, magneto-optical,
46and solid-state devices.
47.Pp
48A
49.Tn SCSI
50Host
51adapter must also be separately configured into the system
52before a
53.Tn SCSI
54direct access device can be configured.
55.Sh PARTITIONING
56The
57.Nm
58driver allows the disk to have two levels of partitioning.
59One layer, called the
60.Dq slice layer ,
61is used to separate the
62.Fx
63areas of the disk from areas used by other operating systems.
64The second layer is the native
65.Bx 4.4
66partitioning scheme,
67.Xr disklabel 5 ,
68which is used to subdivide the
69.Fx
70slices into areas for individual file systems and swap spaces.
71For more information, see
72.Xr fdisk 8
73and
74.Xr disklabel 8 ,
75respectively.
76.Pp
77If an uninitialized disk is opened, the slice table will be
78initialized with a fictitious
79.Fx
80slice spanning the entire disk.
81Similarly, if an uninitialized
82(or
83.No non- Ns Fx )
84slice is opened, its disklabel will be initialized with parameters returned
85by the drive and a single
86.Sq Li c
87partition encompassing the entire slice.
88.Sh CACHE EFFECTS
89Many direct access devices are equipped with read and/or write caches.
90Parameters affecting the device's cache are stored in mode page 8,
91the caching control page.
92Mode pages can be examined and modified via the
93.Xr camcontrol 8
94utility.
95.Pp
96The read cache is used to store data from device-initiated read ahead
97operations as well as frequently used data.
98The read cache is transparent
99to the user and can be enabled without any adverse effect.
100Most devices
101with a read cache come from the factory with it enabled.
102The read cache can be disabled by setting the
103.Tn RCD
104(Read Cache Disable) bit in the caching control mode page.
105.Pp
106The write cache can greatly decrease the latency of write operations
107and allows the device to reorganize writes to increase efficiency and
108performance.
109This performance gain comes at a price.
110Should the device
111lose power while its cache contains uncommitted write operations, these
112writes will be lost.
113The effect of a loss of write transactions on
114a file system is non-deterministic and can cause corruption.
115Most
116devices age write transactions to limit vulnerability to a few transactions
117recently reported as complete, but it is none-the-less recommended that
118systems with write cache enabled devices reside on an Uninterruptible
119Power Supply (UPS).
120The
121.Nm
122device driver ensures that the cache and media are synchronized upon
123final close of the device or an unexpected shutdown (panic) event.
124This ensures that it is safe to disconnect power once the operating system
125has reported that it has halted.
126The write cache can be enabled by setting the
127.Tn WCE
128(Write Cache Enable) bit in the caching control mode page.
129.Sh TAGGED QUEUING
130The
131.Nm
132device driver will take full advantage of the SCSI feature known as tagged
133queueing.
134Tagged queueing allows the device to process multiple transactions
135concurrently, often re-ordering them to reduce the number and length of
136seeks.
137To ensure that transactions to distant portions of the media,
138which may be deferred indefinitely by servicing requests nearer the current
139head position, are completed in a timely fashion, an ordered tagged
140transaction is sent every 15 seconds during continuous device operation.
141.Sh BAD BLOCK RECOVERY
142Direct Access devices have the capability of mapping out portions of
143defective media.
144Media recovery parameters are located in mode page 1,
145the Read-Write Error Recovery mode page.
146The most important media
147remapping features are 'Auto Write Reallocation' and 'Auto Read
148Reallocation' which can be enabled via the AWRE and ARRE bits,
149respectively, of the Read-Write Error Recovery page.
150Many devices do not ship from the factory with these feature enabled.
151Mode pages can be examined and modified
152via the
153.Xr camcontrol 8
154utility.
155.Sh KERNEL CONFIGURATION
156It is only necessary to explicitly configure one
157.Nm
158device; data structures are dynamically allocated as disks are found
159on the
160.Tn SCSI
161bus.
162.Sh IOCTLS
163The following
164.Xr ioctl 2
165calls apply to
166.Tn SCSI
167disks as well as to other disks.
168They are defined in the header file
169.In sys/disklabel.h .
170.Pp
171.Bl -tag -width DIOCSDINFO
172.It Dv DIOCSBAD
173Usually used to set up a bad-block mapping system on the disk.
174.Tn SCSI
175drives incorporate their own bad-block mapping so this command is not
176implemented.
177.It Dv DIOCGDINFO
178Read, from the kernel, the in-core copy of the disklabel for the
179drive.
180This may be a fictitious disklabel if the drive has never
181been initialized, in which case it will contain information read
182from the
183.Tn SCSI
184inquiry commands.
185.It Dv DIOCSDINFO
186Give the driver a new disklabel to use.
187The driver
188.Em will not
189write the new
190disklabel to the disk.
191.It Dv DIOCWLABEL
192Enable or disable the driver's software
193write protect of the disklabel on the disk.
194.It Dv DIOCWDINFO
195Give the driver a new disklabel to use.
196The driver
197.Em will
198write the new disklabel to the disk.
199.El
200.Sh SYSCTL VARIABLES
201The following variables are available as both
202.Xr sysctl 8
203variables and
204.Xr loader 8
205tunables:
206.Bl -tag -width 12
207.It kern.cam.da.retry_count
208.Pp
209This variable determines how many times the
210.Nm
211driver will retry a READ or WRITE command.
212This does not affect the number of retries used during probe time or for
213the
214.Nm
215driver dump routine.
216This value currently defaults to 4.
217.It kern.cam.da.default_timeout
218.Pp
219This variable determines how long the
220.Nm
221driver will wait before timing out an outstanding command.
222The units for this value are seconds, and the default is currently 60
223seconds.
224.It kern.cam.da.%d.minimum_cmd_size
225.Pp
226This variable determines what the minimum READ/WRITE CDB size is for a
227given
228.Nm
229unit.
230(The %d above denotes the unit number of the
231.Nm
232driver instance, e.g.\& 1, 2, 4, 8, etc.)
233Valid minimum command size values are 6, 10, 12 and 16 bytes.
234The default is 6 bytes.
235.Pp
236The
237.Nm
238driver issues a CAM Path Inquiry CCB at probe time to determine whether the
239protocol the device in question speaks (e.g.\& ATAPI) typically doesn't allow
2406 byte commands.
241If it doesn't, the
242.Nm
243driver will default to using at least 10 byte CDBs.
244If a 6 byte READ or WRITE fails with an ILLEGAL REQUEST error, the
245.Nm
246driver will then increase the default CDB size for the device to 10 bytes and
247retry the command.
248CDB size is always
249chosen as the smallest READ/WRITE CDB that will satisfy the specified minimum
250command size, and the LBA and length of the READ or WRITE in question.
251(e.g., a write to an LBA larger than 2^32 will require a 16 byte CDB.)
252.El
253.Sh NOTES
254If a device becomes invalidated (media is removed, device becomes unresponsive)
255the disklabel and information held within the kernel about the device will
256be invalidated.
257To avoid corruption of a newly inserted piece of media or
258a replacement device, all accesses to the device will be discarded until
259the last file descriptor referencing the old device is closed.
260During this period, all new open attempts will be rejected.
261.Sh FILES
262.Bl -tag -width /dev/rsdXXXXX -compact
263.Sm off
264.It Pa /dev/da Ar u Pa s Ar n
265.Sm on
266raw mode
267.Tn SCSI
268disk unit
269.Ar u ,
270slice
271.Ar n ,
272accessed as an unpartitioned device
273.It Pa /dev/da Ns Ar u Ns Ar p
274raw mode
275.Tn SCSI
276disk unit
277.Ar u ,
278first
279.Fx
280slice, partition
281.Ar p
282.Sm off
283.It Xo
284.Pa /dev/da
285.Ar u
286.Pa s
287.Ar n
288.Ar p
289.Xc
290.Sm on
291raw mode
292.Tn SCSI
293disk unit
294.Ar u ,
295.Ar n Ns th
296slice, partition
297.Ar p
298.El
299.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
300None.
301.Sh SEE ALSO
302.Xr ad 4 ,
303.Xr disklabel 5 ,
304.Xr disklabel 8 ,
305.Xr fdisk 8
306.Sh HISTORY
307The
308.Nm
309driver was written for the
310.Tn CAM
311.Tn SCSI
312subsystem by
313.An Justin T. Gibbs .
314Many ideas were gleaned from the
315.Nm sd
316device driver written and ported from
317.Tn Mach
3182.5
319by
320.An Julian Elischer .
321Support for slices was written by
322.An Bruce Evans .
323