SUMMARY - Fiber Channel RAID adapters - Price/Availability

From: Paul Cross <tru64unix_at_email.com>
Date: Fri, 28 Apr 2000 11:02:37 -0400 (EDT)

The answer is....... "42" (Deep Think)

Actually the reponses were excellent (see below), unfortunately what it
means is that I need to do a little more homework on this problem. Such as;
1) Do I need to be using v5.0a instead of v5.0 to get FC support
in Tru64?
2) If FC is supported, will it be FC/AL or Switched FC?
3) Do I really want a FC RAID controller mounted in the host or
could I get away with a FC/AL RAID controller in the storage
cabinet as I have now with UW SCSI RAID controllers (ala
Infortrend) and a FC Host Bus Adapter (arbitrated loop or
switched)?
4) Will my "Third party" vendor assure me that it will work?
5) SCSI-3 / Ultra160 - Who knows??? (Don't get me started!)

I will probably go with RAID controller in the storage cabinet and start
from there. Many thanks to all who responded.

Paul

<<< ORIGINAL QUESTION >>>
Hello Managers,

I have an alpha clone system (164LX) that will be running Tru64 v5.0 shortly
and I am interested in setting up external RAID storage at the highest
throughput possible (given what it is running on).

Basically I have some very large files (+18GB) that I process that will only
continue to grow over time (as they should). Currently I am using Dual
UltraWide controllers (IntraServer)with external RAID boxes containing RAID
controllers (Infortrend). At the time 9GB drives were the best solution to
populate these RAID cabinets. Monitoring my processes shows them to be
bound-up in I/O >90% of the time.

Now, with FC/AL and SCSI-3 (Ultra160) drives available I would like to re-do
my RAID to take advantage of these new drives and protocols. The tricky part
is finding a RAID controller that works with Tru64 v5.0.

I would like to put a Fiber Channel RAID controller in my 164LX and connect
it to an external storage cabinet.

Could anyone tell me what Fiber Channel RAID controllers are supported under
v5 (Manufacturers at least, approx. price if possible) and whether or not
SCSI-3 will be coming soon?

Thanks,
Paul
<<< ORIGINAL QUESTION >>>

<<< RESPONSES >>>
From: Aluwihare Buddika
<baluwihare_at_compaq.com>

Paul,

As far as I know FC is not supported on Tru64 V5.0. Therefore you may need
Tru64 V5.0a for what you intend on carrying out.

regards,
Buddika


From: Alan Nabeth
<alan_at_nabeth.cxo.dec.com>

As a general rule, Compaq only *supports* our own products,
with support meaning that we guarantee that it will work
in qualified configurations. If you want that kind of
guarantee for 3rd party products you'll have to get the
3rd party to commit to it.

If you look at the V5.0 SPD (which is in the DOCUMENTATION
directory of the base system CDROM), you'll see the KGPSA
is supported (a Fibre Channel adapter), but the HSG80, which
is our Fibre Channel based RAID controller isn't. The
remainder of the documentation is unclear, but I vaguely
recall reading elsewhere that HSG support in V5.0 was
dropped. I'm pretty sure it made it back into V5.0A,
though I've only seen the Release Notes for it.

As for SCSI-3, define it please. The last time I saw
all the drafts for SCSI-3 in one place it was a stack of
double sided 8 1/2 by 11 sheets over a foot thick. It
has lots of different parts. Vendors have been using
parts of SCSI-3 for years (bus speeds faster than 10 Mhz
for example). Other parts probably aren't even close to
usable by anybody yet. With so much to choose from, you
need to be pretty specific.


From: "Michael W."
<sqlman_at_excite.com>

Try the folks at http://www.raidinc.com they know everything and deal with
Tru64 Unix.


From: Erik Piip
<piip_at_merl.com>

Paul,

look at www.compaq.com ... They have a bunch of nice fiber chanel solution.
Expensive though ;-) I've been looking at it for a while... Note, Tru64 only
does Switched FC, not arbitrated loop.

erik


From: Chalissery, George
<george_at_HEALTHDS.com>

Paul,

I think that the list will be unable to respond to your question as you did
not include your e-mail address as part of the body of the message.

I am also interested to see want is available in the fiber channel area. I
know that Infortrend is coming out with new controllers that support FC-AL
with a PowerPC processor. That should be good given their track record. This
can be combined with the standard Compaq host PCI to fiber channel adapters
to get a final solution. I think that FC-AL drives are available only from
Seagate and IBM at this point. Given that Quantum has the highest performing
drives at the moment, that is a bit of a limitation.

Thanks for the summary in advance,

George.
<<< RESPONSES >>>

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Received on Fri Apr 28 2000 - 15:04:00 NZST

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