We're seeing some odd behavior on an AlphaStation 255/233 running DU 4.0B.
There are 6 external 4GB drives in a StorageWorks cabinet attached to the
machine via a KZPSA (firmware version: DEC P01 A10). The machine
recognizes the disks just fine, they fsck, and they're mounted at boot time
normally.
However, it appears that the first time a disk on this chain is accessed
after reboot (or perhaps even after some time has passed) there's a quite
noticeable delay - even doing an "ls" on an empty partition on one of the
disks takes ~15 seconds. Subsequent accesses to the disk, though, are as
speedy as ever. It's as though the disks spin themselves down or
something... No error report shows up in uerf, and I do eventually get
data, so it's not obviously a bad controller or cable. It happens on each
disk on the chain (and there's only the one chain, so nothing to compare it
to). During the delay, "top" reports the process in WAIT state.
Any ideas about what could be wrong? Is this a known problem? Are there
any diagnotics I can run that will give me a better handle on what's going
on?
Thanks.
Pat Wilson
paw_at_dartmouth.edu
Received on Wed Sep 24 1997 - 18:08:38 NZST