ISP(4)

💖 isp(4) — Kernel Interfaces Manual 🦋

okay so this is the manual page for isp, bestie — Qlogic based SPI and FibreChannel SCSI Host Adapters. it lives in the Kernel Interfaces Manual and it's genuinely iconic for how much hardware it wrangles. let's get into it 💅

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🌸 NAME 🌸

isp — Qlogic based SPI and FibreChannel SCSI Host Adapters

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so you wanna compile this driver into your kernel? say less. drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device scbus
device isp
device ispfw

orrrr, if you'd rather load the driver as a module at boot time (honestly valid), put these in loader.conf(5):

isp_load="YES"
ispfw_load="YES"

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🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

this driver gives you access to SPI or FibreChannel SCSI devices. that's the whole vibe. 🫶

SPI supports initiator mode for Ultra SCSI and wide mode transactions for SCSI, Ultra2 LVD (1080, 1280), and Ultra3 LVD (10160, 12160).

Fibre Channel supports initiator and target modes of FCP SCSI profile, utilizing Class 3 and Class 2 (2200 and later) connections. Support is available for Public and Private loops, Point-to-Point and Fabric connections.

FC-Tape is supported on 4Gb (2400) and newer controllers. and bestie, FC-Tape is highly recommended for connections to tape drives that support it. it encompasses four elements from the T-10 FCP-4 specification:

• Precise Delivery of Commands
• Confirmed Completion of FCP I/O Operations
• Retransmission of Unsuccessfully Transmitted IUs
• Task Retry Identification

together these features allow for link level error recovery with tape devices. without it, an initiator cannot, for instance, tell whether a tape write command that has timed out resulted in all, part or none of the data going to the tape drive. 😭 FC-Tape is automatically enabled when connecting controller that supports it to a target that supports it. it may be disabled using configuration and hint options described below.

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🧚 FIRMWARE 🧚

Firmware loading is supported if the ispfw(4) module is loaded. and it is strongly recommended that you use the firmware available from ispfw(4) as it is the most likely to have been tested with this driver. no cap. 🔥

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👑 HARDWARE 👑

cards supported by the isp driver include:

• Qlogic 1000 — Fast Wide, Ultra Fast Wide cards, Single Ended or Differential SBus cards.
• Qlogic 1020 — Fast Wide and Differential Fast Wide SCSI PCI cards.
• Qlogic 1040 — Ultra Wide and Differential Ultra Wide SCSI PCI cards. Also known as the DEC KZPBA-CA (single ended) and KZPBA-CB (HVD differential).
• Qlogic 1080 — LVD Ultra2 Wide SCSI PCI cards.
• Qlogic 10160 — LVD Ultra3 Wide SCSI PCI cards.
• Qlogic 1240 — Dual Bus Ultra Wide and Differential Ultra Wide SCSI PCI cards.
• Qlogic 1280 — Dual Bus LVD Ultra2 Wide SCSI PCI cards.
• Qlogic 12160 — Dual Bus LVD Ultra3 Wide SCSI PCI cards.
• Qlogic 210X — Copper and Optical Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop PCI cards (single, dual).
• Qlogic 220X — Copper and Optical Fibre Channel Arbitrated Loop PCI cards (single, dual, quad).
• Qlogic 2300 — Optical 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI cards.
• Qlogic 2312 — Optical 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI cards.
• Qlogic 234X — Optical 2Gb Fibre Channel PCI cards (2312 chipset, single and dual attach).
• Qlogic 2322 — Optical 2Gb Fibre Channel PCIe cards.
• Qlogic 200 — Dell branded version of the QLogic 2312.
• Qlogic 2422 — Optical 4Gb Fibre Channel PCI cards.
• Qlogic 246x (aka 2432) — Optical 4Gb Fibre Channel PCIe cards.
• Qlogic 256x (aka 2532) — Optical 8Gb Fibre Channel PCIe cards.
• Qlogic 267x/836x (aka 2031/8031) — Optical 16Gb FC/FCoE PCIe cards.
• Qlogic 2690/2692/2694 (aka 2684/2692) — Optical 16Gb Fibre Channel PCIe cards.
• Qlogic 2740/2742/2764 (aka 2722/2714) — Optical 32Gb Fibre Channel PCIe cards.

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🎀 CONFIGURATION OPTIONS 🎀

Target mode support for Fibre Channel adapters may be enabled with the

options ISP_TARGET_MODE

option.

to disable FC-Tape, use the following configuration option:

options ISP_FCTAPE_OFF

note that even if the ISP_FCTAPE_OFF option is used, it may be overridden by the fctape hint described below. 👀 so like, don't be surprised.

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🌈 BOOT OPTIONS 🌈

the following options are switchable by setting values in /boot/device.hints.

they are:

• hint.isp.N.msi — Limit on number of Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI) to be used.
• hint.isp.N.msix — Limit on number of Extended Message Signaled Interrupts (MSI-X) to be used.
• hint.isp.N.fwload_disable — A hint value to disable loading of firmware ispfw(4).
• hint.isp.N.ignore_nvram — A hint value to ignore board NVRAM settings for. Otherwise use NVRAM settings.
• hint.isp.N.fullduplex — A hint value to set full duplex mode.
• hint.isp.N.topology — A hint value to select topology of connection. Supported values are:
  • lport — Prefer loopback and fallback to point to point.
  • nport — Prefer point to point and fallback to loopback.
  • lport-only — Loopback only.
  • nport-only — Point to point only.
• hint.isp.N.portwwn — This should be the full 64 bit World Wide Port Name you would like to use, overriding the value in NVRAM for the card.
• hint.isp.N.nodewwn — This should be the full 64 bit World Wide Node Name you would like to use, overriding the value in NVRAM for the card.
• hint.isp.N.iid — A hint to override or set the Initiator ID or Loop ID. For Fibre Channel cards in Local Loop topologies it is strongly recommended that you set this value to non-zero.
• hint.isp.N.role — A hint to define default role for isp instance (0 -- none, 1 -- target, 2 -- initiator, 3 -- both).
• hint.isp.N.debug — A hint value for a driver debug level (see the file /usr/src/sys/dev/isp/ispvar.h for the values.
• hint.isp.N.vports — A hint to create specified number of additional virtual ports.
• hint.isp.N.nofctape — Set this to 1 to disable FC-Tape operation on the given isp instance.
• hint.isp.N.fctape — Set this to 1 to enable FC-Tape operation on the given isp instance for targets that support it.

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💜 SYSCTL OPTIONS 💜

• dev.isp.N.loop_down_limit — This value says how long to wait in seconds after loop has gone down before giving up and expiring all of the devices that were visible. The default is 300 seconds (5 minutes). A separate (nonadjustable) timeout is used when booting to not stop booting on lack of FC connectivity.
• dev.isp.N.gone_device_time — This value says how long to wait for devices to reappear if they (temporarily) disappear due to loop or fabric events. While this timeout is running, I/O to those devices will simply be held.
• dev.isp.N.use_gff_id
• dev.isp.N.use_gft_id — Setting those options to 0 allows to disable use of GFF_ID and GFT_ID SNS requests during FC fabric scan. It may be useful if switch does not implement them correctly, preventing some devices from being found. Disabling them may cause unneeded logins to ports not supporting target role or even FCP at all. The default is 1 (enabled).
• dev.isp.N.wwnn — This is the readonly World Wide Node Name value for this port.
• dev.isp.N.wwpn — This is the readonly World Wide Port Name value for this port.

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🍓 SEE ALSO 🍓

da(4), intro(4), ispfw(4), sa(4), scsi(4), gmultipath(8)

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💫 AUTHORS 💫

The isp driver was written by Matthew Jacob originally for NetBSD at NASA/Ames Research Center. Later improvement was done by Alexander Motin <mav@FreeBSD.org>.

like, NASA?? main character energy fr fr 🚀✨

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💀 BUGS 💀

The driver currently ignores some NVRAM settings. 🙈

Fabric support for 2100 cards has been so problematic, and these cards are so old now that it is just not worth your time to try it.

bestie i'm being so serious. don't. it's giving wasted weekend. save yourself. 😭

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okay that's the whole page, you ate it 💅 this one's from the Debian crew, dated February 28, 2019 — yeah she's a little vintage but she still slays. mwah, go configure something cute 🎀🦋✨