SCSI Questions, From IBM.PC.FAQ: * What's the difference between SCSI and SCSI-2? Are they compatible? * How am I suppose to terminate the SCSI bus? * Can I share SCSI devices between computers? ======================================================================= * What's the difference between SCSI and SCSI-2? Are they compatible? The main difference between SCSI and SCSI-2 are some new minor features that the average person will never notice. Both run at a maximum 5M/s. (note: Fast and Wide SCSI-2 will potentially run at faster rates). All versions of SCSI will work together. On power up, the SCSI host adapter and each device (separately) determine the best command set the speed that each is capable of. For more information on this, refer to the comp.periphs.scsi FAQ. ======================================================================= * How am I suppose to terminate the SCSI bus? Some basic rules on termination: 1. The SCSI bus needs exactly two terminators, never more, never less. 2. Devices on the SCSI bus should form a single chain that can be traced from the device at one end to the device at the other. No 'T's are allowed; stub length should be kept as short as possible. 3. The device at each end of the (physical) SCSI bus must be terminated, all other devices must be unterminated. 4. All unused connectors must be placed _between_ the two terminated devices. 5. The host adapter (controller) is a SCSI device. 6. Host adapters may have both an internal and external connector; these are tied together internally and should be thought of as an "in" and "out" (though direction has no real meaning). If you have only internal or external devices, the host adapter is terminated otherwise it is not. 7. SCSI ID's are logical assignments and have nothing to do with where they go on the SCSI bus or if they should be terminated. 8. Just because your incorrectly terminated system happens to work now, don't count on it continuing to do so. Fix the termination. Examples: internal external internal external T------|-----|------T T------|-------|-----|------|------T drive drive HA cdrom tape unused unused HA drive drive internal external external T------|-----T T------|------T T------T drive drive HA HA tape cdrom HA cdrom "T" = terminator "|" = connector (no terminator) "HA" = Host Adapter ========================================================================== * Can I share SCSI devices between computers? There are two ways to share SCSI devices. The first is removing the device from one SCSI host adapter and placing it on a second. This will always work if the power is off and will usually work with the power on, but for it to be guaranteed to work with the power on, your host adapter must be able to support "hot swaps" - the ability to recover from any errors the removal/addition might cause on the SCSI bus. This ability is most common in RAID systems. The second way to share SCSI devices is by connecting two SCSI busses together. This is theoretically possible, but difficult in practice, especially when disk drives are on the same SCSI chain. There are a number of resource reservation issues which must be resolved in the OS, including disk caching. Don't expect it to 'just work'. ======================================================================== =end