Article 146356 of comp.os.vms:
In article <2EDD65D5378@orchid.le.ac.uk>, 
    		"Steve Reece, Systems." <srr3@leicester.ac.uk> writes:
[...]
> SYS$ETC is on Alpha version 6.2-1H2 but it doesn't appear to be there on 
> version 6.1-1H2 for Alpha.

        Right, it first appeared in 6.2.

> On 6.2-1H2 it gives a translation of SYS$SYSROOT:[SYSHLP.UNSUPPORTED]
> What is it here for?  We have a number of files in it such as
> SCSI_MODE.EXE
> SCSI_INFO.EXE
> RZTOOLS_ALPHA.EXE
> RF_VERS.EXE
> RZ26L_442D_DEC.FUP
> RZ28_442D_DEC2104.FUP
> 
> Any ideas guys?

        Yes.  James F. Dunham  of  Digital  posted  a  pointer  to these
    utilities  on  c.o.v last August.  I've appended his post  below  my
    sig.

    These are tools to query  SCSI  disks (and other SCSI devices?), and
    to update the firmware in SCSI drives.  It's a lot better than havig
    to  disconnect  a  drive, attach to a PC, update the  firmware,  the
    re-attach it to your Alpha!  BTW, I don't know where  there  is  any
    documentation for their use...

        -Ken
-- 
 Kenneth H. Fairfield       |  Internet: Fairfield@Slac.Stanford.Edu
 SLAC, P.O.Box 4349, MS 46  |  DECnet:   45537::FAIRFIELD (45537=SLACVX)
 Stanford, CA   94309       |  Voice:    415-926-2924    FAX: 415-926-3515
 -------------------------------------------------------------------------
 These opinions are mine, not SLAC's, Stanford's, nor the DOE's...

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From: dunham@star.enet.dec.com (James F. Dunham)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Re: AXP VMS 6.2 SCSI problems
Date: 9 Aug 1995 10:57:55 GMT
Organization: Digital Equipment Corporation -- OpenVMS Engineering
Lines: 32
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Message-ID: <40a4bj$cuj@nntpd.lkg.dec.com>
References: <408lds$b1m@mango.rsmas.miami.edu>
Reply-To: dunham@star.enet.dec.com
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||| Jim Brown, jim@lime.rsmas.miami.edu
||| 
||| After upgrading an AXP VMS 6.1 system to AXP VMS 6.2 (a DEC 3000/400)
||| the system is logging errors on the various attached SCSI disks (some are
||| fatal errors such that the disk cannot be mounted -- 'invalid command').

OpenVMS V6.2 supplies an unsupported utility to return SCSI device information
that is used during device MOUNT time. The results of the following command
may indicate why you have some SCSI devices failing.

	$ MCR SYS$ETC:SCSI_INFO <device:>

Form many SCSI devices they will respond with a "CHECK CONDITION", for
a 10-byte MODE SENSE. In the request sense data returned, the device is suppose
to return (20/00) for (ASC/ASCQ) which is "invalid command operation code".

There is special code to handle other class of 10-byte MODE SENSE failure,
which may result in 1 to 11 errors posted against a device at MOUNT time, but
the device should MOUNT and operate successfully. These are classes of device
firmware failures, and the vendor of the SCSI device should be contacted to
ask if they have new firmware to address MODE_SENSE(10) support.

-Jim

--
+---------------------------+tm                 James F. Dunham
|   |   |   |   |   |   |   |     I / S / O     OpenVMS Development
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+---------------------------+      SCSI-2       Nashua, NH 03062-2698
						dunham@star.enet.dec.com