krf@wucs1.wustl.edu (Kevin R. Fenster) (04/05/91)
Here's the symptom: Using a terminal server, we connect to our DECsystem 5500 running Ultrix 4.1. This is via Telnet. We log on, do some work, being happy. Then, one of us puts a tape cartridge in the TK70 tape drive, starts up a tar, and everyone connected via terminal servers gets very VERY poor interactive performance. Do an ls, and it takes 20-30 seconds just to echo the 'l' and the 's'. Using vi is suicidal. DEC field service is working on it, but not having a lot of luck. I had originally reported the problem to the software support guys in Atlanta (used the 800 number), they contacted me, went off for a day, called me back, had me look at the error log, and since we saw some controller errors from the TQK70, software support sent me to hardware support. Field service engineer shows up today, tells me that the errors we are seeing are normal startup errors ( I tend to believe this as the only time an error is logged is during system startup). The SE is trying to solve the problem. Has anybody else seen similar symptoms? Supposedly there is a patch for the 5400 and 5800 which "improves performance by 100%", but software support was reluctant to try these since they did not have the 5500 stamp of approval. Let me know if you have any suggestions, hints, anecdotes, etc... Kevin Fenster -- Nebraska Wesleyan University P.S. To Roland @ Oakland University: Sorry, I should have realized that Minnesota was MN. Oh well, all those states look the same when you get out east :-).