Asset ID:	1-75-1018650.1
Update Date:	2011-03-03
Keywords:

Solution Type Troubleshooting Sure

Solution 1018650.1 : Sun Ray[TM] Server thin client: Troubleshooting USB Mass Storage

1. Basic checks

It is recommended to go through the basic checks first.

1.1 Sun Ray Server Software(SRSS) Checks

1.1.1 Check both the OS and SRSS support

The following table shows USB Mass Storage on Sun Ray support matrix.

SRSS	Solaris[TM] Operating System(OS)	Linux (Kernel 2.6)
3.1.1	n/a	RHAS4U3, SLES9SP3
3.1	8, 9, 10 on SPARC[R], 10 on x86	no
3.0	8, 9 on SPARC[R]	no

USB Mass Storage on Sun Ray is not supported on SRSS 1.0, 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 or 2.0.
USB Mass Storage was available as an unsupported, unbundled download for SRSS 2.0. In SRSS 3.0 and 3.1, USB Mass Storage is not supported with Controlled Access Mode, but you can use a work-around to enable USB Mass Storage support for your favorite CAM application: http://blogs.sun.com/ThinkThin/entry/cam_mass_storage_workaround

USB Mass Storage on Linux is not supported on older Linuxes, because the Sun Ray USB mass storage drivers simply do not exist in the current supported Linux releases. This is because of limitations in the 2.4 kernel that those distros (RHAS3, SLES8, JDS2) are based on.

The new drivers are available in the 3.1.1 release of SRSS for Linux 2.6-based distributions (Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS 4.0 u3, SuSE Linux Enterprise Server 9.0 SP 3).

1.2 Sun Ray[TM] DTU Checks

1.2.1 Check if it is a Sun Ray[TM] DeskTop Unit(DTU) with P1 motherboard

 % /opt/SUNWut/sbin/utdesktop -p <mac address> | grep -i model
Model                 = SunRayP1

In this case, the DTU has a P1 motherboard.
P1 hardware is somewhat old, and sometimes cannot deliver full power to its USB
connectors. Only the P1 had this problem, not all Sun Ray 1 appliances. If you
need to drive USB peripherals, then it is a good idea to make sure the DTU does
not have P1 hardware. Try the mass storage device on a Sun Ray[TM] DTU with a
newer model.

1.3 Connection Checks

1.3.1 General connection checks

Make sure all cables are connected. The USB specification limits the length
of a cable between full speed devices, to 5 meters(16 feet, 4.85 inches).
Make sure the cable is not longer.

For troubleshooting, do not use USB-Repeater or USB-Line-Extender.

1.3.2 USB hubs

USB hubs can be bus powered(they get the power by the USB cable) or self
powered(they get the power by an external power supply unit).

If connected to a self-powered USB hub, ensure the hub is connected correctly, and has power.

Do not use a bus-powered hub between the storage device and the DTU, because a
USB port can offer only max. 500 mA, and there are many USB devices which
require up to 500 mA when fully operational. In the worst case, it can result in
data corruption if a bus-powered hub is used.

For troubleshooting, we recommend connecting the USB device directly rather than using a USB hub in between.

1.4 Mass Storage Checks

1.4.1 Check if the mass storage is a supported device

Sun Ray Server Software 3.x on Solaris supports the use of Flash Disks (e. g.
Memory Sticks), Memory Card Readers, Zip drives, and Hard Drives on Sun Ray
DTUs. SRSS 3.x does not support floppy drives.

Sun Ray Server Software 3.0 on Solaris does not support CD or DVD drives.

Sun Ray Server Software 3.1 on Solaris and Sun Ray Server Software 3.1.1 on Linux allow data CDs and DVDs to be read but not written.

Support for some of the "not supported device types" might come in the future.
Other devices we know, that we have had trouble with are: "Butterfly media flash
drive" and various "SanDisk devices". These run a different protocol,.

Go to http://www.sun.com/io_technologies/sunray/sunray-index.html for a list of mass
storage devices that have been verified by Sun.

1.4.2 Check if your mass storage has a supported file system

Supported file systems are UFS and PCFS.

Note: FAT partitions and UFS slice names have sn suffixed to them to denote traditional SunOS slices, e.g. disk1s0, disk1s6.
disk1s2 is the backup slice (full disk, similar to c3t0d0s2 in /dev/dsk).

2. Checks for a Specific Problem

It is recommended to go through the basic checks first, even if there is a specific problem.

2.1 Mount Problems

You plugged in a flash disk at your Sun Ray[TM] appliance, and nothing happened.

Here is how to find out what went wrong.

2.1.1 Check, if a mount point has been created under $DTDEVROOT/mnt

 % cd $DTDEVROOT/mnt
% pwd
/tmp/SUNWut/mnt/guest
% ls -d disk*
disk2
% ls -la disk*
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root   root   28 Jan 14 12:35 disk2 -> /tmp/SUNWut/mnt/guest/noname

2.1.2 Did the mass storage service (utstoraged) create device links in $UTDEVROOT/dev/dsk ?

 % cd $UTDEVROOT/dev/dsk
% pwd
/tmp/SUNWut/units/IEEE802.0003ba5b56f1/dev/dsk
% ls -la
total 48
drwxr-xr-x   2 root     other     181 Jan 14 12:35 .
drwxr-xr-x   4 root     root      238 Jan 14 12:35 ..
lrwxrwxrwx   1 root     other     72 Jan 14 12:35 disk2s2 ->
../../devices/usb@1/hub@4/USB_2.0_Flash_Disk,USB_Mass_Storage_Device@2:2

If device links exist, but the device is not mounted, it is possible that
the disk does not have a Solaris OS recognizable filesystem on it. This could be
because:

It has a FAT filesystem that Solaris PCFS does not understand
It has no filesystem. Format the disk, and create new filesystem using mkfs
in this case

If device links do not exist, it could mean that the disk is running a USB
protocol not recognized by utstoraged. If utstoraged was started up with debug
turned on (utstoraged -D 20 is default beta startup level), look for the
following messages in utstoraged.log.

USB sub-class 0x.. not supported
USB protocol 0x.. not supported

You will have to wait for a future release of utstoraged to implement the remaining USB protocols.

2.1.3 Is the mass storage service up and running ?

 # ps -ef | grep utstoraged
root 18473 18471  0 12:34:39 ?        0:00 /opt/SUNWut/lib/utstoraged -r
root 18474 18473  0 12:34:39 ?        0:00 /opt/SUNWut/lib/utstoraged -r
root 18471     1  0 12:34:39 pts/7    0:00 /bin/ksh -p /opt/SUNWut/lib/utlog -o /var/opt/SUNWut/log/utstoraged.log

If the daemons are not running, start up services with:

 # /etc/init.d/utstorage start
starting mounter service
starting storage service

2.1.4 Is the mounter daemon is up and running ?

 # ps -ef | grep utmountd
root 18470 18469  0 12:34:39 pts/7    0:00 /opt/SUNWut/lib/utmountd
root 18469     1  0 12:34:39 pts/7    0:00 /bin/ksh -p /opt/SUNWut/lib/utlog -o /var/opt/SUNWut/log/utmountd.log

If the daemon is not running, start up services with:

 # /etc/init.d/utstorage start

 starting mounter service

2.2 Write Problems

If there are problems writing on the mass storage, check if it has hardware
write protection enabled. Search for a little plastic switch on memory sticks,
for example.

2.3 Performance Problems

2.3.1 Slow-, Full- and High-speed USB devices

Sun Ray appliances provide four USB 1.1 ports, or (in the new USB terminology)
full-speed ports, which talk to devices at either 1.5 Mbit/s or 12 Mbit/s,
depending on the preference of the device. Slow-speed devices like Keyboards and
Mice, prefer the 1.5 Mbit/s subchannel, for example.

USB 2.0 (known as high-speed USB) products, have a design data rate of 480
Mbit/s. Current Sun Ray hardware does not support USB 2.0 - but, don't worry
about devices claiming USB 2.0 compliance. USB is both upwards- and
backwards-compatible. You can attach USB 2.0 hardware also to a Sun Ray
appliance, the device will work, but slower.

2.3.2 Accessing Large File Systems

Sun Ray[TM] Mass Storage is intended for low data rate and low duty cycle uses.
For example, personal storage of small files, file transfer to/from disconnected
computers, archival storage/retrieval of modest amounts of data would be
appropriate uses. Attempting to use USB mass storage on a Sun Ray[TM] to mount a
huge general use file system or a sizeable production database is not appropriate.

2.3.3 Latency

The Sun Ray[TM] USB protocol is tuned for low latency and does not perform well
in other environments.

2.3.4 Low bandwidth environments

Using USB mass storage devices in a Sun Ray[TM] low bandwidth environment works
over non-NAT connections, and is fine for limited use, within the limitations
imposed by the low available network bandwidth. At 300-1000 Kbit/s, it would
take a long time to write a sizeable amount of data, which could also impact
graphics performance of all user sessions sharing the same connection or line to
the Sun Ray[TM] server.

2.3.5 Other potential hardware issues

Do not use a Sun Ray[TM] with a P1 type motherboard. See also 1.2.1.
Do not use USB hubs. See also 1.3.2.

2.4 Unmount Problems

2.4.1 Device is busy

 % /opt/SUNWut/bin/utdiskadm -r disk1
utdomount: /tmp/SUNWut/mnt/guest/unamed: Device busy
utdiskadm: unmount /tmp/SUNWut/mnt/guest/unnamed failed

 % pwd
/tmp/SUNWut/mnt/guest/unnamed

Place the working directory outside the mounted directory to fix the problem
above.

 % cd /
% /opt/SUNWut/bin/utdiskadm -r disk1
disk1 is ready for unplugging

2.5 Sync Problems

If your Palm won't sync with the Sun Ray, do the following:

  # cd /usr/sfw/lib/libusb_plugins
# ln -s /opt/SUNWut/lib/libusbut.so.1 libusbut.so

3. Log Files

3.1 Check the logs for errors

Have a look in the log files. Sometimes there is useful information which can
narrow down the problem.

utstoraged dumps messages to /var/opt/SUNWut/log/utstoraged.log
utmountd dumps messages to /var/opt/SUNWut/log/utmountd.log
The kernel modules dump messages to /var/adm/messages
Run /opt/SUNWut/bin/utdiskadm -s as root to see a list of stale mount points

3.2 Set debug levels

utstoraged debug level can be set by editing /etc/init.d/utstorage and setting the value for -D
utmountd debug level can be set by editing /etc/init.d/utstorage and setting the value for -D
Kernel module debug level can be set by changing the value of the utdebug property in /usr/kernel/drv/utdiskctl.conf and
reloading the module as follows
o /etc/init.d/utstorage stop
o /usr/sbin/modinfo | grep utdisk (to find module ID)
o /usr/sbin/modunload -i <utdisk_module_id>
o /usr/sbin/update_drv utdiskctl
o /usr/sbin/update_drv utdisk
o /etc/init.d/utstorage start

Appendix

References:
o http://www.sun.com/io_technologies/sunray.html
o http://www.usb.org
o So you actually wanted to use your iPod with Solaris 10?!

Abbreviations:
o DTU Desktop Unit
o GA General Availability
o NAT Network Address Translation
o OS Operating System
o PCFS Personal Computer File System
o SRMS Sun Ray Mass Storage
o SRSS Sun Ray Server Software
o USB Universal Serial Bus

Product
Sun Ray Server Software 3.0
Sun Ray Server Software 3.1
Sun Ray 1 Ultra-Thin Client
Sun Ray 100 Ultra-Thin Client
Sun Ray 1g Ultra-Thin Client
Sun Ray 150 Ultra-Thin Client
Sun Ray 170 Ultra-Thin Client
Sun Ray 2FS Virtual Display Client
Sun Ray 2 Virtual Display Client

Internal Comments
n/a

While Controlled Access Mode and USB mass storage support do not work together in the SRSS 3.0 FCS, a workaround can be found internally on
http://webhome.sfbay/Interop/downloads/CAM_Storage_Fix.tar.gz

Internal References:

o http://sunray.sfbay/twiki/bin/view/Sunray/SRMS10DevInfo

o http://sunray.eng.sun.com/twiki/bin/view/Sunray/SunRayHardwareInternals

o http://sunray.eng.sun.com/twiki/bin/view/Sunray/USBPeripherals

o RFE: pcfs should support force unmount

o BugID 4403767 RFE: udfs should support force unmount

o BugID 4785148 Keyboard and Mouse on Corona P1 hangs during printing.

o BugID 4820210 Keyboard/Mouse hang after bulk transfer completes with quotech/digi adapter on P1.

o BugID 4749877 Data loss while doing bulk transfer on Corona P1 units.
o BugID 6334520 Palm515 can't sync in Sunray

o BugID 6391060 USB mass storage devices get removed when SIGCONT is sent to utstoraged child process.

sunray, Sun Ray, usb, mass storage, storage, hard disk, flash disk, memory stick, zip drive, compact flash, floppy, cd, dvd, drive, SanDisk, utstoraged, utmountd
Previously Published As
79953

Change History
emailed Author Johann Loefflmann 7/22/08
Hi Johann,

In Internal Comments the link for RFE: PCFS should support unmount is not pointing to a Bug or anything that has to do with that title. If you could please fix this with the correct solution as soon as possible so that we may publish this article it would be greatly appreciated. If I can be of any assistance please let me know. Thank you

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