IBM Power RAID adapter utilities (iprutils)
IBM® Power® RAID (IPR) adapter utilities provide tools that are required by the IBM Power RAID adapter device driver.
With IBM Power RAID adapter utilities, you can configure, update, and query the adapter. The information that you can query includes disk status, disk array status, and Serial-attached SCSI (SAS) path status. You also gather adapter failure information.
IBM Power RAID adapter utilities are provided by the iprutils package. The commands that are typically included are:
- iprconfig
- Configure IBM
Power RAID storage adapters, display information about them,
and recover adapters and disk units. The options of this tool include:
- Display hardware status.
- Display information about all IPR SCSI disks that are attached to your system.
- Work with SCSI Bus Configuration.
- Set some SCSI bus parameters such is Max Bus Throughput and host SCSI ID.
- Work with Driver Configuration.
- Adjust device drivers log levels.
- Work with disk configuration.
- Set device attributes, such as queue depth.
- Download microcode.
- Download microcode to adapters and SCSI disks.
- Create a disk array.
- Create a disk array.
- Delete a disk array.
- Delete existing disk arrays. Data that is stored on the devices is not preserved after you run this command.
- Add a device to a disk array.
- Add devices of similar capacity to an existing RAID 5 disk array.
- Format Device for advanced function/Format Device for JBOD (Just a Bunch Of DASD) function.
- Disk devices can either be formatted to 512 bytes/sector or 522 bytes/sector. Devices must be formatted to 522 bytes/sector, also known as advanced function format, to be used in a disk array or as a hot spare. Devices not in a disk array can be formatted to 512 bytes/sector so that they can be used directly by the operating system.
- Create a hot spare.
- Configure a disk to be a hot spare, which can be used by an adapter to automatically replace a failed device
- Concurrent add device.
- Concurrently add a SCSI disk to a running system.
- Concurrent remove device.
- Concurrently remove a SCSI disk from a running system.
- Initialize and format disk.
- Send a SCSI format command to SCSI disks. Use this option with caution.
- Reclaim IOA cache storage.
- Note: IOA stands for I/O Adapter.This option is for IBM hardware service personnel. This option is potentially dangerous and might delete data from the non-volatile write cache on an adapter.
- Rebuild disk unit data.
- Reconstruct a device as an active array member.Note: This option is generally used following concurrent maintenance after a failing array member device was replaced.
- Work with Resources Containing Cache Battery Packs.
- View the status of the Cache Battery on resources that contain battery packs. Use this option during maintenance actions on resources that contain battery packs.
- Analyze Log.
- View the error messages that are logged by the IPR device driver.
- Information message reported by iprconfig
- You might receive an error message in the following situations:
- You ran the iprconfig utility from a console while concurrently adding a disk to the system.
- You ran the iprconfig utility from a console while concurrently removing a physical device from the system.
The error message is similar to this example:
This message is for your information only. No action is necessary.EPOW <0x6240040000000b8 0x0 0x0> RTAS: event: 5, Type: EPOW, Severity: 1 - iprdump
- Gather and dump information in the event of an adapter failure. By default, the dump data is saved in /var/log/iprdump.DUMP_ID, where DUMP_ID is the id of the dump. The iprdump command writes an entry to the system error log when it creates a dump. The iprutils package provides an /etc/init.d/iprdump script to start the iprdump command as a service during boot time.
- iprinit
- Initialize IBM Power RAID adapters and devices for optimal performance, and load any configurations that are saved by the iprconfig command. The iprutils package provides an /etc/init.d/iprinit script to start the iprinit command as a service during boot time.
- iprupdate
-
Attention: Deprecated. Use the iprconfig command to update and manage device microcode.
The commands that are provided by this package, and their features and usage, might vary by distribution and release. Consult the man pages on your system for the most accurate description of their features and usage. For more information about how to list and display the man pages for commands that are provided by this package, see Displaying package man pages.
For more information about SAS RAID controllers for Linux on your Power Systems, see the SAS RAID controllers for Linux topic corresponding to your system in the Systems Hardware Information Center. SAS RAID controllers for Linux contains subtopics that illustrate various options of the iprconfig command.