I received a large number of responses about the feasibility of this
particular hardware combination. I'd like to thank the following people for
their replies:
"Dave Golden" <golden_at_falcon.invincible.com>
sxkac_at_java.sois.alaska.edu (Kurt Carlson)
alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com
sanghvi_at_proto.wilm.ge.com (arun sanghvi)
"Edward D. Silver" <eds_at_ipcc.com>
Karl Marble <marblek_at_ci.worcester.ma.us>
Dejan Muhamedagic <muja_at_galeb.etf.bg.ac.yu>
Joseph Thvedt <jthvedt_at_brookings.net>
Here's a summary of the points made by one or more of the people who replied:
-Make sure that the Alpha & SWXCR firmware are upgraded to a recent revision.
-RZ29's run at 7200 rpm, instead of 5400 rpm, so extra cooling may be
required.
-LSM is not needed in this case, the SWXCR (re) devices can have
filesystems built on them direclt by Digital Unix.
-Try to spread out the disks across as many RAID controller channels as
possible.
-I think nearly everyone mentioned upgrading Digital Unix to at least 3.2,
and preferably moving to 3.2G, or even 4.0B. Moving beyond 3.0B requires
that we upgrade our RDBMS as well, so this particular item requires some
extra planning on our part.
-Joseph Thvedt explained that he was using RZ29's on a 2100, with the same
SWXCR controller as us without incident.
Here was my original question:
>Good day everyone. We're planning to replace some of the RZ26 drives that
>are attached to our EISA SWXCR controllers with RZ29's to allow for
>continued growth of our database application. Since we are in the planning
>stage, I'm trying to get as much information on potential pitfalls before
>we go ahead with this upgrade.
>
>The Digital salesperson that we spoke with seemed to indicate that we
>wouldn't be able to use RZ29's until we upgraded our machine from Digital
>Unix 3.0B to at least 3.2. As is usually the case, such an upgrade is not
>feasible for us at this time. (-: However, the Alpha's console firmware has
>been updated to the version contained on the 3.8 CD. So, my specific
>questions are:
>
>1.) Will RZ29's function with a 2100 4/200 running 3.0B?
>
>2.) On a related note, does anyone know if it is feasible to build a
>filesystem
>directly on top of a large SWXCR raid set, and avoid LSM altogether. (The
>set will likely be 6 RZ29's in a RAID 0+1 configuration)
>
> I will summarize the responses. Thanks in advance.
--
Andrew Reynolds, Systems Administrator, Novanet Inc.
Andrew.Reynolds_at_Novanet.ns.ca
Received on Mon Mar 03 1997 - 14:28:37 NZDT