Dear DU Folk,
I have three Alpha 800s and one Alpha 1200 - all to be built with
DU4.E. Desireably and ultimately these boxes will all be in a cluster with
shared storage on StorageWorks 7000, however time constraints have meant
moving them into production much sooner than the cluster build and 7000
acquisition is possible.
To minimise the business impact when we do go the cluster way, I am
attempting to build all four boxes with external storage, driven by Mylex
3-Channel RAID controllers. OS will be mirrored in internal bays on all
machines.
I cannot use disks from the internal bays of the 800s in a
StorageWorks or external bay device as they are a "SB" part, not "VW". I am
therefore forced into buying four external disk bays (Part # BA36R-RC/D).
The question I am posing is:
In the event of a machine dying, is it possible to plug that
machine's external disk bay into the spare external Mylex controller on one
of my other machines, remount f/ss etc. All external bays would be
configured (RAID-wise) the same. I am aware that only user data and not OS
could live on these external bays. What about disklabels ( they would be the
same as the existing disks)? What about Mylex RAID config? Can this be
insitituted in a similar way to AIX, by just importing/exporting a volume?
Local Compaq agents say YES this can be done but it is no trivial
process.
I know this is a poor man's redundancy but it is a situation we are
forced into.
As usual, back to the wall on this issue and I do not know enough of
the nuances of DU disk management to give the cheque-signers a definitive
guarantee.
Any comments/criticisms or better options gratefully received.
Sincerely,
Malcolm Condie
macolmc_at_bsbs.co.nz
Operations Manager
Blue Star Business Supplies
Phone: (09) 526-2929
Mobile: (021) 706-796
Fax: (09) 526-2937
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Received on Thu Feb 25 1999 - 18:33:29 NZDT