STB Suite

The Complete STB Suite

The STB Suite is the industry’s most advanced and widely used testing and diagnostic software tool. In use world wide since 1992, the STB Suite encompasses every testing software tool that you need to test, troubleshoot, configure, and diagnose any single-ended, differential, SCSI 1, 2, 3, wide or narrow devices, Ultra II, Ultra3, FC, iSCSI, SATA, ATAPI, or SAS device!

The STB Suite is the SCSI, iSCSI, FC, SATA, SAS testing software that virtually every Repair Depot, OEM, Disk and Tape Manufacturer, Integrator, 3rd party solution provider, Field Service and A/V solution provider uses at the Enterprise Level in the world. If you do peripheral testing for the professional market, you should be using The STB Suite.

If your job is to screen Hard Disk Drives (HDDs), Solid State Drive (SSDs) or Tape Drives (including Libraries or Juke boxes) that could possibly be bad, or are flagged as bad from a customer you want to look at the Disk Manufacturing/Screening Module or Tape Manufacturing/Screening Module included with The STB Suite. If your job is the write a custom SCSI, iSCSI, SATA, SAS, FC testing solution that integrates with your already existing tests, or you need to write the tests yourself from scratch you would use the Developer Toolbox (API) included with The STB Suite. The Developer Toolbox will allow you to use Visual Basic (VB), Visual C++ (VC++), Visual Basic .NET (VB.NET), or if you’re using Linux there is a Shared Object Library (.so file) to access the hundreds of built in functions that include detailed logging, multi-threading and much more. All Protocols and all HBA’s are supported!

 

The STB Suite consists of three main components:

  1. An interactive GUI test environment

  2. A high volume manufacturing environment

  3. Visual Basic and C++ test development environment

STB Suite - Toolbox Core

The Interactive GUI

An interactive test system with pre-defined commands and tests for detailed testing of disk drives, tape drives, storage libraries, and processor devices. Hundreds of “real-world” tests developed in cooperation with our wide customer base since 1992 makes this the most versatile test system ever. From user defined CDB’s through complete suites of compliance, performance, and stress tests for all device types, The STB Suite can be used by SCSI experts and novices alike.

The Manufacturing Modules

The STB Suite comes with a complete high volume manufacturing/reliability test/burn-in test system for both disks and tapes. Each drive on up to 16 host bus adapters has its own independent test thread for the highest data throughput and least interaction with other devices under test. A simple Point and Click interface allows complex sequences of tests to be assembled in minutes, and with many pre-defined test sequences included your test line will be up and running in no time at all. Detailed test reports are generated for each device tested, and an Access data base records all test steps and results, allowing you to build up a historical data base tracking every drive that passes through your facility.

The Development System

The STB Suite also includes the Developers Toolbox, a rich library of over 170 functions allowing you to quickly write your own tests in Visual Basic or C++. From simple commands through completely threaded multi-drive high level tests, the Developers Toolbox supplies every tool you need to write custom tests for any device and any interface. And best of all the Developer Toolbox lets you program in industry standard programming languages and environments, keeping the learning curve to a minimum and letting your device experts work at providing solutions.

Modules and Capabilites

All of the modules that have been developed for The STB Suite over the past decade are still included in the software package, such as:

Fibre Channel Module

The Fibre Channel Upgrade allows your existing SCSI toolbox to perform all of the SCSI toolbox tests and commands on Fibre Channel devices. Direct port driver access and dual port capabilities. Organizes drives into logical addresses and allows for up to 126 devices per host adapter. Supports all Fibre Channel host adapters.

Workstation Prep Module

The Workstation Prep Module guarantees high-level formatting, partitioning, and labeling of drives in seconds. Designed for use on your Windows-based PC or laptop, this module can prep and format for various UNIX operating systems, including SunOS, Solaris, HP/UX, DEC Ultrix and IRIX. In addition, Workstation Prep reads the drive and reports drive geometry and flaw information, making it easy to integrate a drive into the workstation environment.

Media Module

The Media Module allows for complete duplication of disks and tapes. Quickly and effortlessly clones up to 15 targets from one source, regardless of the data or format on the source device. The Media Module allows you to copy form disk-to-tape/tape-to-disk as well.

Jukebox Module

The Jukebox Module exercises and programs robotics for all optical or tape libraries such as HP, STK, Exabyte, ADIC, ATL, Qualstar, Sony, and many others. A simple to use graphical representation of the library gives an instant view of the state of all storage elements, drives, mailboxes, and pickers. Drag and Drop allows you to move media, view VolSer information, or position the picker.

ScriptWriter Pro Module

ScriptWriter Pro is a full-featured programming language that follows Microsoft Visual Basic syntax and semantics and features full flow of control, subroutines and functions. A full-featured editor is included that allows you to edit and debug existing scripts, create new scripts, and run and test scripts. Integrated into the editor is a debugger that supports stepping into and over functions, watching and evaluating variables, and setting breakpoints. The editor also includes a dialog editor, which permits visual editing of dialog controls. Any command can be included in a script. Full access to all systems resources, including the Windows API DLLs, allows your script to be “network aware”, as well.

The Developer Toolbox uses our proven interface to access SCSI, Fibre Channel, SATA, SAS, iSCSI, or ATAPI devices from Visual Basic or C++ running on 32bit and 64bit versions of Windows and Linux.

This library can be integrated into all popular test and process development environments such as Visual Basic or Visual C++. Over 200 functions allow you to easily work with disk drives, tape drives, libraries, processors, and any other SCSI/FC/ATAPI/SATA/SAS peripherals! With more tests and functions being added monthly, the Developer Toolbox is a solid and growing test development tool. In use at major manufacturers and integrators, the Developer Toolbox is the proven way to test peripheral storage devices FAST! The Developer Toolbox also includes its own stand-alone development environment, Scriptwriter Pro. Scriptwriter Pro is a Visual Basic for Applications compatible development environment that includes a debugger/editor, an interpreter/compiler, and a GUI design tool. Complete OLE-aware stand alone applications with graphical user interface can be quickly created with this tool.

The Disk Manufacturing Module is the easiest to use, most versatile, and fastest disk testing product on the market.

A true multi-threaded, multiple host bus adapter, multi-drive screening and testing tool, the Disk Manufacturing Module allows you to:

  • Confirm that the proper drives are in the subsystem
  • Download new drive firmware if needed
  • Set all mode pages to your standard
  • Set block size and capacity
  • Format
  • Log and track all error information
  • Run any type of test, or sequence of tests at full bus and device speeds
  • Log all process activities, drive information, and any errors to an Access database

All processes and test sequences are created from a graphical user interface – no programming or scripting is required! Time from installation to a complete test process can be as little as 5 minutes!

The Automated Manufacturing Engine – GUI-less DMM test sequences to ensure consistent repeatable results.

The Automated Manufacturing Engine (AME) is STB’s automation tool that allows you to run scripts created in our Disk Manufacturing Module (DMM).  AME can be run from a Command Prompt Window or even a batch file.  Like other automation tools, once run it requires no user-intervention or “baby sitting”.   After AME completes, the user can then analyze the extensive logfiles for success and view details on the failures.

In order to run AME, there are five steps that must be done.  These steps are:

  1. Create, within DMM, one or more testing scripts
  2. Decide which devices on your system will be tested
  3. Create a configuration file that will test the devices in step 2
  4. Launch AME
  5. Analyze the logfiles

The Tape Manufacturing Module is the easiest to use, most versatile, and fastest tape testing product on the market.

A true multi-threaded, multiple host bus adapter, multi-drive screening and testing tool, the Tape Manufacturing Module allows you to:

  • confirm that the proper drives are in the subsystem
  • download new drive firmware if needed
  • set compression on or off
  • log and track all error information
  • run any type of test, or sequence of tests at full bus and device speeds
  • run ANY external program as a part of the test sequence
  • log all process activities, drive information, and any errors to an Access database
  • create an individual text log file for each device tested

All processes and test sequences are created from a graphical user interface – no programming or scripting is required! Time from installation to a complete test process can be as little as 5 minutes!

BAM is an software bus analyzer that can capture, display, and analyze trace data from any peripheral bus, including SCSI, Fibre Channel, IDE, ATA, SATA, and SAS.

BAM offers complete versatility as far as choice of phases that are captured and displayed, capture modes to minimize I/O impact, buffer size and capture size, and device(s) to capture trace data from.

User-Defined Custom Option

If your company requires features not already included in STB Suite, STB can adapt this diagnostic software to meet your custom SCSI manufacturing, production, field service and programming needs. Simply consult a STB sales representative for more information.


Protocol Support

  • SCSI (All interfaces – single-ended, differential, SCSI 1, 2, 3, wide or narrow devices, Ultra II, Ultra3)
  • Fibre Channel (FCAL)
  • Magneto Optical (MO)
  • Serial Attached SCSI (SAS)
  • iSCSI
  • Serial ATA (SATA)
  • ATAPI
  • NVMe
  • PCIe

Operating System Requirements

The STB Suite is available for the following platforms:

  • Windows XP SP2 or higher (32 and 64bit)
  • Windows Server 2008 (32 and 64bit)
  • Windows Server 2012 (32 and 64bit)
  • Windows Vista (32 and 64bit)
  • Windows 7 (32 and 64bit)
  • Windows 8
  • Redhat Linux Kernel 2.6 or higher (API’s only)

Pricing

The STB Suite list price is $4995

*Contact STB for Quantity discounts