xref: /freebsd/share/man/man4/da.4 (revision 7660b554bc59a07be0431c17e0e33815818baa69)
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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.  Most devices
100with a read cache come from the factory with it enabled.
101The read cache can be disabled by setting the
102.Tn RCD
103(Read Cache Disable) bit in the caching control mode page.
104.Pp
105The write cache can greatly decrease the latency of write operations
106and allows the device to reorganize writes to increase efficiency and
107performance.
108This performance gain comes at a price.
109Should the device
110lose power while its cache contains uncommitted write operations, these
111writes will be lost.
112The effect of a loss of write transactions on
113a file system is non-deterministic and can cause corruption.
114Most
115devices age write transactions to limit vulnerability to a few transactions
116recently reported as complete, but it is none-the-less recommended that
117systems with write cache enabled devices reside on an Uninterruptible
118Power Supply (UPS).
119The
120.Nm
121device driver ensures that the cache and media are synchronized upon
122final close of the device or an unexpected shutdown (panic) event.
123This ensures that it is safe to disconnect power once the operating system
124has reported that it has halted.
125The write cache can be enabled by setting the
126.Tn WCE
127(Write Cache Enable) bit in the caching control mode page.
128.Sh TAGGED QUEUING
129The
130.Nm
131device driver will take full advantage of the SCSI feature known as tagged
132queueing.
133Tagged queueing allows the device to process multiple transactions
134concurrently, often re-ordering them to reduce the number and length of
135seeks.
136To ensure that transactions to distant portions of the media,
137which may be deferred indefinitely by servicing requests nearer the current
138head position, are completed in a timely fashion, an ordered tagged
139transaction is sent every 15 seconds during continuous device operation.
140.Sh BAD BLOCK RECOVERY
141Direct Access devices have the capability of mapping out portions of
142defective media.
143Media recovery parameters are located in mode page 1,
144the Read-Write Error Recovery mode page.
145The most important media
146remapping features are 'Auto Write Reallocation' and 'Auto Read
147Reallocation' which can be enabled via the AWRE and ARRE bits,
148respectively, of the Read-Write Error Recovery page.
149Many devices do not ship from the factory with these feature enabled.
150Mode pages can be examined and modified
151via the
152.Xr camcontrol 8
153utility.
154.Sh KERNEL CONFIGURATION
155It is only necessary to explicitly configure one
156.Nm
157device; data structures are dynamically allocated as disks are found
158on the
159.Tn SCSI
160bus.
161.Sh IOCTLS
162The following
163.Xr ioctl 2
164calls apply to
165.Tn SCSI
166disks as well as to other disks.
167They are defined in the header file
168.In sys/disklabel.h .
169.Pp
170.Bl -tag -width DIOCSDINFO
171.It Dv DIOCSBAD
172Usually used to set up a bad-block mapping system on the disk.
173.Tn SCSI
174drives incorporate their own bad-block mapping so this command is not
175implemented.
176.It Dv DIOCGDINFO
177Read, from the kernel, the in-core copy of the disklabel for the
178drive.
179This may be a fictitious disklabel if the drive has never
180been initialized, in which case it will contain information read
181from the
182.Tn SCSI
183inquiry commands.
184.It Dv DIOCSDINFO
185Give the driver a new disklabel to use.
186The driver
187.Em will not
188write the new
189disklabel to the disk.
190.It Dv DIOCWLABEL
191Enable or disable the driver's software
192write protect of the disklabel on the disk.
193.It Dv DIOCWDINFO
194Give the driver a new disklabel to use.
195The driver
196.Em will
197write the new disklabel to the disk.
198.El
199.Sh SYSCTL VARIABLES
200The following variables are available as both
201.Xr sysctl 8
202variables and
203.Xr loader 8
204tunables:
205.Bl -tag -width 12
206.It kern.cam.da.retry_count
207.Pp
208This variable determines how many times the
209.Nm
210driver will retry a READ or WRITE command.
211This does not affect the number of retries used during probe time or for
212the
213.Nm
214driver dump routine.
215This value currently defaults to 4.
216.It kern.cam.da.default_timeout
217.Pp
218This variable determines how long the
219.Nm
220driver will wait before timing out an outstanding command.
221The units for this value are seconds, and the default is currently 60
222seconds.
223.It kern.cam.da.%d.minimum_cmd_size
224.Pp
225This variable determines what the minimum READ/WRITE CDB size is for a
226given
227.Nm
228unit.
229(The %d above denotes the unit number of the
230.Nm
231driver instance, e.g. 1, 2, 4, 8, etc.)
232Valid minimum command size values are 6, 10, 12 and 16 bytes.
233The default is 6 bytes.
234.Pp
235The
236.Nm
237driver issues a CAM Path Inquiry CCB at probe time to determine whether the
238protocol the device in question speaks (e.g. ATAPI) typically doesn't allow
2396 byte commands.
240If it doesn't, the
241.Nm
242driver will default to using at least 10 byte CDBs.
243If a 6 byte READ or WRITE fails with an ILLEGAL REQUEST error, the
244.Nm
245driver will then increase the default CDB size for the device to 10 bytes and
246retry the command.
247CDB size is always
248chosen as the smallest READ/WRITE CDB that will satisfy the specified minimum
249command size, and the LBA and length of the READ or WRITE in question.
250(e.g., a write to an LBA larger than 2^32 will require a 16 byte CDB.)
251.El
252.Sh NOTES
253If a device becomes invalidated (media is removed, device becomes unresponsive)
254the disklabel and information held within the kernel about the device will
255be invalidated.
256To avoid corruption of a newly inserted piece of media or
257a replacement device, all accesses to the device will be discarded until
258the last file descriptor referencing the old device is closed.
259During this period, all new open attempts will be rejected.
260.Sh FILES
261.Bl -tag -width /dev/rsdXXXXX -compact
262.Sm off
263.It Pa /dev/da Ar u Pa s Ar n
264.Sm on
265raw mode
266.Tn SCSI
267disk unit
268.Ar u ,
269slice
270.Ar n ,
271accessed as an unpartitioned device
272.It Pa /dev/da Ns Ar u Ns Ar p
273raw mode
274.Tn SCSI
275disk unit
276.Ar u ,
277first
278.Fx
279slice, partition
280.Ar p
281.Sm off
282.It Xo
283.Pa /dev/da
284.Ar u
285.Pa s
286.Ar n
287.Ar p
288.Xc
289.Sm on
290raw mode
291.Tn SCSI
292disk unit
293.Ar u ,
294.Ar n Ns th
295slice, partition
296.Ar p
297.El
298.Sh DIAGNOSTICS
299None.
300.Sh SEE ALSO
301.Xr ad 4 ,
302.Xr disklabel 5 ,
303.Xr disklabel 8 ,
304.Xr fdisk 8
305.Sh HISTORY
306The
307.Nm
308driver was written for the
309.Tn CAM
310.Tn SCSI
311subsystem by
312.An Justin T. Gibbs .
313Many ideas were gleaned from the
314.Nm sd
315device driver written and ported from
316.Tn Mach
3172.5
318by
319.An Julian Elischer .
320Support for slices was written by
321.An Bruce Evans .
322