SCSI Utility is a multipurpose software application that will enumerate and display all SCSI devices visible to the host, display INQUIRY data, flash/upgrade firmware in the device, flash/upgrade firmware in SES (GEM) device, perform device Built-in Self Test (BIST), perform extended background BIST on multiple devices simultaneously (aka SCSI diagnostics), perform FORMAT UNIT on multiple devices simultaneously.  Enumerate and display all fibre channel nodes visible to the host, display HBA port properties, display discovered device properties, and display HBA adapter information and statistics that are updated automatically.  Display SCSI parameter pages supported by the device - Mode Pages, Log Pages, Diagnostic Pages and VPD Pages.

To initiate device discovery click on Scan, a list of all SCSI devices will shortly appear in the window.  The columns in the list are as follows:

• Adapter - Windows designates each adapter installed in the host with a unique identifier; in this example, there are four adapters that have devices attached.
• Model - The standard 36 byte INQUIRY command returns Vendor and Product identification strings, this column represents the concatenation of these two strings (vendor + product).
• B-T-L - The location of a SCSI device is defined by it's Bus-Target-LUN (B-T-L) location, it's a hierarchical scheme where LUN is child to the Target, and Target is child to the Bus.  An adapter can have multiples buses, a bus can have multiple targets and a target can have multiple LUNs.  Parallel SCSI has a limitation to the number of targets that can be on a single bus (16), but fibre channel is practically limitless based on it's 24 bit addressing scheme (2**24 - 1).
• Device Type - Device Type is extracted from the Peripheral Qualifier/Device Type BYTE returned in the standard 36 byte INQUIRY data. 
  • 0x00 - Direct Access Device
  • 0x01 - Sequential Access Device
  • 0x03 - Processor Device
  • 0x05 - CD-ROM Device
  • 0x0C - RAID Controller
  • Refer to the SPC-2 Specification, Section 7.3 on http://www.t10.org/ for a complete device type listing.
• Revision - This is the product revision level returned in the standard 36 byte INQUIRY data and typically represents the version of controller firmware currently running on the device.

Many of the device operations are initiated from this dialog by first highlighting a row in the list to choose the device you want before making a menu item selection or clicking on a button.  Detail will display the standard 96 byte INQUIRY data format defined in the SPC-2 Specification, Section 7.3 on www.t10.org .

Remember to use the scrollbar to see the entire 96 bytes of data. 

Self Test will perform the default self-test defined in the SEND DIAGNOSTIC command.  If the test fails, an error dialog will be displayed showing the SCSI status, sense key, and ASC/ASCQ codes returned by the device.

The additional sense codes and additional sense code qualifiers are defined in the SPC-2 Specification, Appendix C on http://www.t10.org/ .  If the test passes, the following window will be displayed.

For a more detailed test, the built-in self tests can be performed on one or multiple devices simultaneously to ascertain their health.  These are non-destructive tests that use the vendors internal diagnostics.

Bring up the diagnostics dialog by selecting Tools->Diagnostics.

Highlight one or multiple devices that you would like to test

Select Test to begin diagnostics

Field Explanation:

• HR/MIN/SEC - Elapsed time since diagnostics started, stops when final device has completed testing.
• Status - IDLE, IN PROGRESS, PASS, FAIL or CANCEL
• Progress - Percentage completion.
• What Failed? - Displays which test failed - TUR, BIST, Short BIST or Extended BIST
• Sense Key - Sense key value associated with a failure.
• ASC/ASCQ - Additional sense code / additional sense code qualifier associated with a failure.
• Self-Test Error - Refer to SPC-2 Specification, Section 8.2.8, Table 138 on http://www.t10.org/ .
• Stage - Current test being performed.

When all of the selected devices have completed with their diagnostics, Test will be re-enabled and the dialog can be closed.

Highlighting a device and selecting Tools->SCSI Bus Reset will cause the HBA to perform a bus reset and reset all  SCSI targets connected to the bus.  Fibre Channel HBA's also implement SCSI bus resets but the implementation of this feature is vendor specific. 

The first step in flashing a device's firmware is to select the binary image file using the menu selection File->Open.

When the file has been selected, the full path and filename will appear in the status window at the bottom of the dialog

If you try to Flash without first selecting the image file, the following error will be displayed.

If a file has been previously selected, you will be asked if you want to continue.

Selecting No will cancel the operation, selecting Yes will bring up the final selection screen.

Refer to the SPC-2 Specification, Section 7.26 on http://www.t10.org/  for more information on the WRITE BUFFER command. The default setting that the Moojit uses for a WRITE BUFFER is Mode 7 with incrementing offset, buffer id = 0, and chunk size = 32K.  This implementation has been designed for maximum flexibility and should be able to flash most devices that conform to some flavor of WRITE BUFFER.  Please refer to the manufacturer's documentation to determine the type of WRITE BUFFER supported.  Buffer ID must be between 0 and 255, Chunk Size can be set to 1K, 2K, 4K, 8K, 16K, 32K, 64K and AUTO.  SCSI Enclosure Services (SES) devices adhering to Qlogic's Enclosure Management (GEM) flashing algorithm can also be programmed.  If the device does not support SEND DIAGNOSTIC -> STRING OUT (GEM algorithm), WRITE BUFFER may be used instead.  Use this feature at your own risk; the Moojit is not responsible for damaged hardware related to this activity.

To display the Mode, Log, Diagnostic and Vital Product Data (VPD) pages supported by a device, highlight a row in the main dialog and select Tools->Parameters.

The Device Parameters Dialog will be displayed showing all the pages supported by the selected device.

In this example, the Fujitsu hard drive supports 10 Mode Pages, 12 Log Pages, 4 VPD Pages and no Diagnostic Pages.  To view a page, highlight a row and select View.

If a page is not supported by the SCSI Utility for Windows, the following message will be displayed.

The table below summarizes all Parameter Pages that can viewed using the SCSI Utility.

Refer to the Specifications on www.t10.org for a detailed description of the parameter pages and the meanings of the different fields.

Adapter information can be displayed by selecting a row and selecting Tools->Adapters->Information.

The adapter information dialog will be displayed.

• Identifier/Manufacturer/Adapter Name - Adapter operating system identifier and description.
• Driver - Location and name of adapter driver.
• Group/Class
• I/O Capabilities
  • Maximum transfer length - Is the maximum size, in bytes, of a single SCSI request block (SRB). 
  • Maximum Physical Pages - Contains the maximum number of physical pages per data buffer.
  • O/S Page Length - Size of operating system page length.
  • Alignment mask - Contains the alignment mask for data transfers. The host adapter requires that data to be transferred must be aligned on an address that is an integer multiple of the value in this field.
  • Asynchronous Event Support - When TRUE, indicates that the host adapter supports SCSI asynchronous receive-event operations.
  • Tagged Queuing Support - When TRUE, indicates that the host adapter supports tagged queuing

SCSI Utility has the capability of sending SCSI commands to devices per the SPC-2 and SBC Specification on http://www.t10.org/ . In future releases, additional device types and support for their specific commands types may be incorporated. The table below summarizes the current CDB support. 

Block Devices can be formatted by opening the Format Device Dialog by selecting Tools -> Format Drives.

Multiple devices can be formatted simultaneously, select Format to begin. The length of time required to format all selected drives is displayed in hours, minutes, and seconds; percentage completion is also displayed

There are many ways to construct a FORMAT UNIT CDB, the Moojit has tried to keep her implementation as simple as possible:

• No added Defect List
• If new defects are found during format, they are added to the existing Grown Defect List
• Initialization pattern 0xFFh
• Initialization pattern length = 64 bytes
• Initialization pattern type = 01b
• Security Initialize enabled

Referencing Table 5 in section 6.1.1 of SBC specification on http://www.t10.org/, SCSI Utility implements the optional version of FORMAT UNIT called out in the BLOCK FORMAT section, specifically:

• FMTDATA = 1
• CMPLST = 0
• Defect List format = 000b
• Defect List Length = 0

SCSI Utility will first attempt a FORMAT UNIT including the initialization pattern descriptor.  If this fails, it will retry a second time without the initialization pattern descriptor.  In both cases, IMMED is enabled.

Tools->Adapters->SNIA HBA API will display the dialog that lists all fibre channel nodes visible to the host.

Node is the default radio button selection, selecting a row will display the parameters for this device.  Node's are devices discovered by the HBA port.

Selecting the Adapter Port radio button will update the parameters in the dialog associated with the HBA adapter port.

The following is an explanation of the different fields in this dialog.

• Devices - Number of fibre channel nodes discovered on all HBA's installed in the host.
• Device List
  • Adapter - Unique identifier associated with each HBA.
  • WWNN - 64-bit World Wide Node Name
  • WWPN - 64-bit World Wide Port Name
  • FCID - 24-bit Fibre Channel Address
• Adapter Port - Radio button selection to view HBA port parameters.
• Node - Radio button selection to view fibre channel node parameters.
• Port Attributes
  • Domain ID - MSB of fibre channel address
  • Area ID - Bits 8 - 15 of fibre channel address
  • Port ID - LSB of fibre channel address
  • O/S Name - Operating system identifier associated with HBA port.
  • Symbolic Name - Symbolic node name registered by HBA port or fibre channel node (optional)
  • Type - Port type (N-PORT, NL-PORT, F-PORT, FL-PORT)
  • State - Status of HBA port or fibre channel node port.
  • CoS - Registered Class of Service (typically 1, 2 or 3)
  • Speed - Negotiated physical layer speed of HBA port or fibre channel node port.
  • Supported Speed - Same as above.
  • Frame Size - Fibre channel frame size used by HBA port or fibre channel node (HBA vendors allow this parameter to be adjustable, but usually the default setting is close to the maximum frame size, 2112 bytes).
  • FC4 Types -  Bit map that identifies the protocols supported by the HBA port or fibre channel node, refer to FC-GS-3 Specification, Section 5.1.2.7 on http://www.t11.org/  for a detailed explanation of how to decipher the bit map.
  • WWNN -  64-bit World Wide Node Name
  • WWPN - 64-bit World Wide Port Name
  • FCID -  24-bit Fibre Channel Address
  • Discovered Ports - Number of fibre channel nodes discovered by the HBA port, this parameter only applies to the HBA port.

Tools->Adapters->Information will display a dialog that shows detailed information and statistics associated with Adapter in the highlighted row.

Adapter Statistics are automatically updated every 2 seconds.

An explanation of the Adapter Statistics is beyond this text, refer to various Fibre Channel specifications on http://www.t11.org/ to understand their meaning.  Adapter Attributes information is self explanatory. 

• FC-4 Performance - Throughput is based on FC-4 Statistics InputMegabytes and OutputMegabytes.  Maximum, Current and Minimum values are recorded each time the display is updated.  Reset will set the IN and OUT values to zero.  There are five logical layers associated with Fibre Channel - FC-0, FC-1, FC-2, FC-3 and FC-4.  FC-4 is the highest level in the Fibre Channel standards set. FC-4 defines the mapping between the lower
  levels of the Fibre Channel and an Upper Level Protocol (e.g., the SCSI and SBCCS command sets, IP, and other
  Upper Level Protocols (ULPs)). Fibre Channel provides a method for supporting a number of ULPs.  The protocol type used to calculate these statistics is FCP-3 which correlates to all data that is passed to the FC-4 layer, so this may include IP in addition to SCSI protocols.
• FC-1 Performance - Maximum, Current and Minimum values are recorded each time the display is updated.  Reset will set the IN and OUT values to zero.  There are five logical layers associated with Fibre Channel - FC-0, FC-1, FC-2, FC-3 and FC-4.  FC-1defines the transmission protocol that includes the serial encoding, decoding, and error control.
• Baseline - Enable base lining on currently selected HBA port.  Base lining takes a current snapshot of the HBA's port statistics and compares this value to future port statistic captures and displays the difference.  In addition, Windows Application Event Log entries will be enabled and recorded if their is a change in any of the HBA's port statistic parameters.  Base lining along with the FC1 and FC4 port statistics can aid in the determination of the T11 Bit Error Ratio by correlating FC1 layer bit errors with time and throughput.  In addition, base lining allows the user to easily determine if the HBA SERDES receive circuit is seeing any errors on the input data stream.
• Baseline Off - Turns off base lining for currently selected HBA port.
• Select - Changes the display data to the currently highlighted row.

Tools->Adapters->List All displays a dialog that lists all fibre channel adapters installed in the host.

Highlighting an entry and selecting Info will display HBA Information and Statistics dialog.

If an HTTP proxy is required to access the internet, SCSI Utility provides a method to input this data.  Internet access is required to authenticate your license and enable license only features.

SCSI Utility is capable of advanced SCSI formatting features per the SBC-2 specification.  CDB options, parameter list header options, initialization pattern descriptors and defect list types can be selected and created from the advanced SCSI format dialog.

• Create DFL - The user has the ability to create Defect Lists (DFLs).  This button will display one of four different dialogs depending on the Defect List Type selected in the DEFECT LIST FORMAT dropdown located in the Command pane.  Per the SBC-2 specification, the four DFL format types are:  short (000b), long (011b), index (100b) and sector (101b).  Below are the dialog windows that will be displayed for each of these types.

• Clear DFLs - Once a DFL type has been selected, it cannot be changed and all DFL's created must be of the same type.  This button will clear on previously created DFL's and allow the user to choose a new DFL type.
• DFL Count  - This window will display the number of DFL's created.

To enable the features that are not free, two options are available - HASP license key or network license server.  In each case, a valid license file must be provided by the Moojit.  The registration procedure is the same whether using the key or the network server, if using the key, please make sure the key is inserted into a USB port prior to starting SCSI Utility for Windows.

 The user must import the license by selecting the License->Import menu item.

If successful, this screen will be displayed and the non free features will now be enabled.