SCSI Inquiry Command

The SCSI Inquiry command is used to obtain basic information from a target device.[1] The CDB structure is:

bit→
↓byte
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
0 Operation code = 12h
1 LUN Reserved EVPD
2 Page code
3 Allocation length (MSB)
4 Allocation length (LSB)
5 Control

If the EVPD parameter bit is zero and the Page Code parameter byte is zero then the target will return the standard inquiry data, which is structured as follows:

bit→
↓byte
7 6 5 4 3 2 1 0
0 Peripheral qualifier Peripheral device type
1 RMB Device-type modifier
2 ISO version ECMA version ANSI-approved version
3 AEC TrmIOP Reserved Response data format
4 Additional length (n-4)
5 Reserved
6 Reserved
7 RelAdr WBus32 WBus16 Sync Linked Reserved CmdQue SftRe
8–15 Vendor identification (ASCII)
16–31 Product identification (ASCII)
32–35 Product revision level
36–55 Vendor-specific
56–95 Reserved
96 Vendor-specific parameters (variable number of bytes)

The special fields in the standard inquiry data have the following meaning:

  • Peripheral Device Type - see separate article on SCSI Peripheral Device Types
  • RMB - removable medium
  • AENC - 1 = supports Asynchronous Event Notifications - (processor devices only)
  • TrmIOP - 1 = supports Terminate I/O Process messages
  • Response data format - 000=SCSI compliant, other values = legacy devices
  • RelAdr - 1= this LUN supports Relative Addressing Mode (linked commands only)
  • WBus32+WBus16 - support for wide data buses:
    • 00 - 8-bit only
    • 01 - 8 or 16-bit
    • 11 - 8, 16 or 32 bit
  • Sync - 1 = supports synchronous transfers
  • Linked - 1 = this LUN supports linked commands
  • CmdQue - 1 = supports Tagged Command Queuing
  • SftRe - 1 = performs soft resets

If the EVPD parameter bit is one then the target will return Vital Product Data (VPD). This can be from one of a number of different pages, depending on the value of the Page Code parameter:

  • 00h - Supported vital product data
  • 01h-7Fh - ASCII information
  • 80h - Unit serial number
  • 81h - Implemented operating definitions (Obsolete)
  • 82h - ASCII implemented operating definition (Obsolete)
  • 83h - Device Identification
  • 84h - Software Interface Identification
  • 85h - Management Network Addresses
  • 86h - Extended INQUIRY Data
  • 87h - Mode Page Policy
  • 88h - SCSI Ports
  • 89h-AFh - Reserved
  • B0h-BFh - Device type specific
  • C0h-FFh - Vendor-specific

See also

  1. ^ Seagate Disc Drive SCSI-2/SCSI-3 Interface Manual, publication Number 77738479, Rev H
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Last modified on 19 July 2011, at 20:45