Happy Day Fellow Sys Admins -
On Friday, 7 August 1998, I posed a lengthy question to all the sys admins.
I wanted to know whether people used fileservers or RAID arrays to supply
filesystems to their users. I need a machine capable of supporting, DEC,
SUN and SGI machines. I also asked what format tape was best and which
b/w laser printer and color (laser preferred) printer was preferred. I
received replies quickly. Thank you for all the suggestions. I received
answers from the following,
Alan Rollow <alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com>
Rob Shurtleff <shurtlef_at_latrade.com>
Curt Cranfield <curt_at_vphos.net>
C.Ruhnke <i769646_at_smrs013a.mdc.com>
LARRY.CLEGG_at_LPL.COM
LauzierE_at_hanscom.af.mil
chu_at_musp0.jpl.nasa.gov (Eugene Chu)
Eric <Eric.Rostetter_at_utoledo.edu>.
I had to have the info by 1:00 pm today, 10 August. I just made it.
Most responses were very positive about DEC StorageWorks RAID arrays.
There were a few suggestions about other RAID arrays, but the concensus
is to go to DEC RAID arrays. I don't know how much redundancy I will be
able to have because it will depend on what we can afford, but I plan
to push hard for it because without it, it will be harder and harder
to support my users.
Tape drives were DLT all the way, even their autoloaders which I need.
I have had some problems with my 8mm stacker that is 4 years old but
even more problems with my DAT drives that are 1.25 years old or younger.
AIT was supposed to be good, but no one had used them yet so like them I
will stay away from them. DEC's were given the thumbs up by everyone.
Printers were either HPLJ 4 or HPLJ 5. I can print text files fine but
they are not pretty formatted files like the PostScript files, but I will
try to find a2ps which was suggested by chu_at_musp0.jpl.nasa.gov (Eugene Chu).
I have not found it on the net yet so if he would send the ftp site
where he found it, I will download it and compile it.
I did not receive any responses on color printers so I just went to Best
Buy's website and CompUSA's website to see what they had. I have noticed
that Best Buy tends to have older devices that are market proven (and
therefore lower priced) but CompUSA has newer, more innovative, cutting edge
devices. There is an HPLJ5M Color Laser printer that CompUSA sells. Drool,
drool. I would love this for our students's theses.
I had contacted Compaq (the company previously known as Digital or DEC)
about pricing because I had just met my new VAR (vendor approved reseller)
Friday morning at 11:15 am. He did not have his business cards with his
e-mail address on them yet so I am hoping this gets to him. Luckily I have
worked with him in the past and he was very responsive when he used to work
for DEC, oops, Compaq.
Well, that is all for now. Thank you and have a great day.
Kris Larsen
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Kristin L. Larsen aka) "Hey you!"
System Administrator, AFIT/ENY
Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio
ICES contractor
klarsen_at_afit.af.mil AFIT e-mail
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Received on Mon Aug 10 1998 - 16:51:55 NZST