Q-Logic FC HBA CLI manual Driver, Red Hat/SuSE Linux, the driver layers include

SANsurfer FC HBA CLI User’s Guide

Command Line Interface for QLogic Fibre Channel Host Bus Adapters

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driver

The software that interfaces between the file system and a physical data storage device or network media.

The level structure for Windows XP Professional/2000/Windows Server 2003 drivers is as follows:

„Class Driver. The highest driver level. There is a separate class for disk, Ethernet, and so forth. This level handles all generic aspects of opera- tions for that class.

„Port Driver. The middle driver level, which handles aspects of the operation specific to the port type; for example, there is a port driver for SCSI.

In Red Hat/SuSE Linux, the driver layers include:

„SCSI Upper Layer. This is the device management layer. It handles device-dependent tasks for devices, such as disks and tapes.

„SCSI Middle Layer. This is the SCSI traffic handling layer. It directs requests between the kernel and the SCSI.

„SCSI Lower Layer. This is the SCSI HBA driver. It communications directly to the SCSI HBA.

The structure for Solaris SPARC drivers includes:

„Nexus Drivers. Nexus drivers provide bus mapping and translation services to subordinate nexus and leaf devices. These include drivers for PCI-to-PCI bridges, PCMCIA adapters, and SCSI HBAs.

„Leaf Drivers. Leaf drivers provide the traditional character and block driver interfaces for reading and writing data to storage and communication devices. These include drivers for peripheral devices, including

QLA200/QLA2xxx HBAs, disks, tapes, network HBAs, and frame buffers.

„Miniport Driver. The lowest driver level and device specific. This level is usually supplied by the manufacturer as a companion to a physical device.

„Monolithic Driver. This level combines the functions of different driver levels in the same driver to increase perfor- mance.

„Adjunct Driver. This level works along side a driver at the same level to increase performance.

In NetWare, the required drivers include:

„Host Adapter Module (HAM). HAM is the driver component associated with the host adapter hardware. It provides the functionality to route requests to the bus where a specified device is attached.

„Custom Device Module (CDM). The drive component associated with storage devices. It provides the functionality to build device-specific commands from I/O messages received from NetWare’s Media Manager.

E_Port (Expansion Port)

A port in an FC switch that connects to another FC switch or bridge device by an inter-switch link. E_ports are used to link FC switches to form a multi-switch fabric.

echo diagnostic test

Transmits a received signal back to the sender to verify the integrity of the device.

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