General description

CHARON-AXP supports PCI I/O bypass controller for accessing to disk images and host physical disks. PCI I/O bypass controller requires a specific driver to be installed.

PCI I/O bypass controller support is available only for OpenVMS guest operating system.

Prerequisites

This release supports VMS version V6.2-1H3 and higher. Bypass disks can not be used as a boot device in V6.2-1H3, higher versions do not have this restriction.

Make sure that the latest Bypass controller kit has been installed, especially for VMS versions before V7.3-2.

Installation

Open your VM configuration and attach the virtual disk "ovms_tool.vdisk" located by default in the "C:\Program Files\CHARON\Virtual Disk Images\OpenVMS tools package" directory:
Run VM, boot guest OpenVMS operating system.
Mount the disk, its label is "TOOLS" (Example: $ MOUNT DKA400: TOOLS)
Use the POLYCENTER Software Installation (PCSI) utility to install the Bypass Driver. The following example demonstrates the "PCSI PRODUCT INSTALL" command to execute and the expected output (the example assumes the utilities virtual disk image is attached as DKA400:):

Loading PCI I/O bypass controller

Syntax for loading PCI I/O bypass storage adapter:

load pci_io_bypass <name>

The <name> can be DI<x>, DR<x> or DU<x>

where x is selected according to VMS naming scheme, i.e. A stands for the first controller of given type, B - for the second, etc.

Example:

load pci_io_bypass DIA

In AlphaStation 400 configuration use the following syntax for PCI I/O bypass storage loading:

load pci_io_bypass DIA irq_bus = isa

The adapter instance name ("DIA" in the example above) is used then for parametrization, for example:

set DIA container[0]="C:\My disks\vms_distribution.vdisk"

The numbers in the square brackets represent a number of device on PCI I/O Bypass controller.

The maximum number of I/O Bypass controller devices is 64.

By default I/O Bypass controller uses PCI slot corresponded to the <x> parameter (see above). If instead some particular slot is needed, refer to this section for details of specific placement of PCI peripherals on CHARON Virtual Machine (VM) PCI bus (note that "irq_bus" and "irq" parameters are ignored for I/O Bypass controller). In this case the <x> will be changed automatically according to custom position of I/O Bypass controller on PCI bus.

I/O Bypass controller is implemented for OpenVMS only.

Configuration parameters

The I/O Bypass controller has the following configuration parameters:

container

Parameter

container[N]

N is 0..32766 (no more than 64 units)

Type

Text string

Value

Possible values of the parameter are strings in one of the following forms:

Physical disk
- "\\.\PhysicalDrive<X>", where X is 0, 1, …
  Be careful not to destroy all the information from the disk dedicated to CHARON VM by mistake.
  These disks must not be formatted by the host OS.
  Example:
  set DIA container[0]="\\.\PhysicalDrive1"
  .
Physical disk by its WWID
- "\\.\PhysicalDrive(DevID=XXX-...-XXXX)"
  Be careful not to destroy all the information from the disk dedicated to CHARON VM by mistake.
  These disks must not be formatted by the host OS.
  DevID addresses the target physical disk by its WWID (hexadecimal 128-bit identifier assigned to the disk drive by its manufacturer/originator).
  Example:
  .
iSCSI disks
- "\\.\PhysicalDrive(iScsiTarget = <iSCSI target>, LUN = <LUN number>)"
  iScsiTarget addresses the disk by its iSCSI target name.
  LUN specifies LUN on connected iSCSI disk.
  Example:
  .

File representing a physical disk of the HP Alpha system (disk image)
- [<drive>":\"<path-name>"\"]<file-name>[".vdisk"]
  These files can be created from scratch with "MkDisk" utility. Data and OS disks backups are transferred from the original system via tapes or network and restored into these container files.
  Mapping may also include the full path (recommended), for example: "C:\My disks\my_boot_disk.vdisk"
  Example:
  set DIA container[401]="tru64-v51-system.vdisk"
  .

Other type of drive, for example magneto-optical drive
- "\\.\<N>:"
  Example:
  set DIA container[300]="\\.\Z:"
  .

This parameter is initially not set, thus creating NO storage elements on the controller..