Long-overdue summary; my apologies to the list.
The initial querry was whether or not we could put a new 18GB wide SCSI
disk into the StorageWorks bay with the 4.3GB (RZ29B-VA) already living
there. Our 1000A is older; a PB73B. The consensus was that the limiting
factor would likely be the controller (Alan ??? alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com).
I learned something about DEC/COMPAQ nomenclature, as well: there is a tad
of logic to it. VW is for Wide, -VA or -VZ are narrow. VW disks don't
attempt to claim to work in narrow shelves. Heat is probably *not* an
issue with a mostly-empty StorageWorks bay, even with 7200rpm disks, but
the advise was to avoid putting too much in there and the caution was that
work-arounds to get large, fast disks into an older cabinet might make
DEC/Compaq hesitant about supporting it. Thanks to Peter Reynolds
(PReynolds_at_synstar.com) for suggesting that the disk we want is a
DS-RZ1EF-VA (ie., narrow?), although he also suggests that this might
require changing out our original RZ29B-VA for an RZ29L-VA (which will
work with larger disks). Thanks, also, to David Turner
(dturner_at_islandco.com) at Island Computers US Corp for quoting a price on
the DS-RZ1EF also suggesting this disk to us. The price was very
favorable (the same as the bare COMPAQ disk we returned in the beginning).
We have let this issue float, for now, while we deliberate over our
1000A's future. The specs for our 1000A state explicitly that the
backplane of the StorageWorks shelf is "wide SCSI ready" (1000A User's
Guide (EK-ALPSV-OG. A02) 1-5) and explicitly states "Integrated Fast Wide
SCSI-2 controller with external SCSI-2 connector" on the previous page,
which is what caused our initial confusion. Apparently, it isn't for
PB73B's.
Our hardware guru (just showed him our setup) suggested that the DS-RZ1EF
would work just fine with the RZ29B-VA in the cabinet.
Cheers, and again apologies for the (very) late summary
Chris
======================================================================
Christopher C Stevenson C3004 office: (709) 737-2624
Dept. of Physics & Physical Oceanography fax: (709) 737-8739
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, Newfoundland, CANADA A1B 3X7
URL:
http://www.physics.mun.ca/~csteven
======================================================================
"The ultimate argument against astrology...
Alice Cooper and Dan Quayle were born on the same day."
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"The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always
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-- Bertrand Russell
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars."
-- Oscar Wilde
Received on Thu Mar 16 2000 - 17:14:04 NZDT