silverstein@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (MARK SILVERSTEIN) (06/12/91)
We recently lost our DEC hardware maintenance. The contract was awarded to
a third party with whom we have no prior experience. There are concerns in the
lab as to whether or not the new maintenance provider will be keeping our 22
VAX, microVAX and VAXstation nodes in our cluster, plus their peripherals and
microcode at the appropriate rev levels.
Does anybody know if DEC publishes or makes available for sale, current rev
levels and Field Change Orders (FCOs) as they become needed? Such a guide would
make us feel a bit better about our unknown maintainer.
Mark Silversteinterry@spcvxb.spc.edu (Terry Kennedy, Operations Mgr.) (06/12/91)
In article <5621@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>, silverstein@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (MARK SILVERSTEIN) writes: > Does anybody know if DEC publishes or makes available for sale, current rev > levels and Field Change Orders (FCOs) as they become needed? Such a guide would > make us feel a bit better about our unknown maintainer. DEC offers two things of interest: DEC-O-LOG, an FCO log, and Maintenance Documentation Service (manuals, diagnostic listings, etc.), both on micro- fiche. These services would be more useful if they were more complete, but they will probably give you what you need. DEC-O-LOG announces new FCO's as they are announced, and is pretty good about being up-to-date. As a reference service, it's far less useful, since if you want to look up a board by M- number you may or may not find it, and your board may be at a higher revis- ion level than the fiche indicates. An additional page listing all module numbers and current CS revs would be useful. Also, DEC-O-LOG just contains the summary announcements, not the complete FCO text. The part number is MFDOL-x, where X varies. This is a complete cross-product kit (covering terminals, PDP-11, VAX, DEC-10/20, peripherals, etc.) MDS consists of an assortment of hardware manuals, although many are mis- sing, the complete text of the FCO's described in DEC-O-LOG, diagnostic listings, and sometimes schematics. I was told by DEC that they don't pro- vide schematics any more because "they were frequently unreadable". Hmph. You need to buy this per product group. The possibilities are: Terminals, PDP-11 (includes terminals and peripherals), Low-end VAX (in- cludes terminals and peripherals) and VAX (includes low-end VAX, terminals, and peripherals). I think there's also a DEC-10/20 version. Both of these are updated monthly. DEC-O-LOG is a _lot_ less expensive - it is quite possible to spend $10,000 a year on MDS. Terry Kennedy Operations Manager, Academic Computing terry@spcvxa.bitnet St. Peter's College, US terry@spcvxa.spc.edu (201) 915-9381
gwlester@cpu.com (Gerald Lester) (06/12/91)
In article <5621@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov> silverstein@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov writes: > > We recently lost our DEC hardware maintenance. The contract was awarded to >a third party with whom we have no prior experience. There are concerns in the >lab as to whether or not the new maintenance provider will be keeping our 22 >VAX, microVAX and VAXstation nodes in our cluster, plus their peripherals and >microcode at the appropriate rev levels. > > Does anybody know if DEC publishes or makes available for sale, current rev >levels and Field Change Orders (FCOs) as they become needed? Such a guide would >make us feel a bit better about our unknown maintainer. > > Mark Silverstein Yes, it is available. Talk to you Sales Rep. about ordering it. Be insistant, they may not know that it exist. Be warned -- it is NOT CHEAP. Gerald
j_prigot@wrglex.uucp (06/13/91)
In article <5621@dftsrv.gsfc.nasa.gov>, silverstein@stars.gsfc.nasa.gov (MARK SILVERSTEIN) writes: > > Does anybody know if DEC publishes or makes available for sale, current rev > levels and Field Change Orders (FCOs) as they become needed? Such a guide would > make us feel a bit better about our unknown maintainer. > > Mark Silverstein DEC publishes the current revision levels in their "VAXcluster Systems Quorum". I use it to keep my F.S. person on their toes. This is a free publication, and comes out quarterly. The address I have is: Kathleen Trautner VAXcluster Program Office, MRO1-2/S10 Digital Equipment Corporation Corporate User Publications P.O. Box 1001 Marlborough, MA 01752-9840 -- Jonathan M. Prigot j_prigot@wrglex or ...{drilex|think}!wrglex!j_prigot