robin@ecst.csuchico.edu (Robin Goldstone) (10/30/90)
(Sorry if you have seen this before, but there is some question as to wheter or not my original message ever made it off-site...) We want to purchase a unix machine to do Domain Name Service for our campus. I am not a unix person, but I will be supporting this machine with help from our computer science department. We are looking at getting a DECstation since DEC's pricing is good and we get the software free though the University Consortium. I would like some advice about which model DECstation to go with. The machine will not support any interactive users (except for sys. admin.). All it will do is: 1) provide primary name service (Internet) for our campus 2) route mail: a large number of users will have aliases set up on this machine to route incoming mail to their "real" mail home. No one will actually read their mail on this system. There will be upwards of 1000 aliases on this machine, but since the vast majority of e-mail is on-campus only, the actual volume of mail being routed through this machine will be minimal - maybe 50-100 mail messages a day. 3) finger server: maintain a large list of user info that other systems can finger. Thats about it! No application software, no programming... DEC recommended a DECsystem 3100 w/ 8mb memory, 332mb disk, tk50 tape drive. The cost is a little more than we were hoping to spend. I have three questions: 1) Would a DECstation 2100 have enough muscle to perform the above tasks? 2) Is 8MB enough memory? 3) Can we get away with a smaller disk? I know it is possible to save money by buying a non-DEC SCSI disk, but I have heard you have to do some magic to use a SCSI disk as your boot disk, and given my limited (none) ultrix expertise, I don't think this would be smart. Please reply directly to me if possible and thanks in advance for any help you can offer. Robin Goldstone, Systems Software Specialist California State University, Chico Computing Services robin@csuchico.edu
alan@shodha.enet.dec.com ( Alan's Home for Wayward Notes File.) (11/02/90)
In article <1990Oct29.224303.25334@ecst.csuchico.edu>, robin@ecst.csuchico.edu (Robin Goldstone) writes: > (Sorry if you have seen this before, but there is some question as to > wheter or not my original message ever made it off-site...) > > We want to purchase a unix machine to do Domain Name Service for our > campus. I am not a unix person, but I will be supporting this machine > with help from our computer science department. We are looking at > getting a DECstation since DEC's pricing is good and we get the software > free though the University Consortium. > > [ Description of what system will be doing. ] > > Thats about it! No application software, no programming... DEC recommended > a DECsystem 3100 w/ 8mb memory, 332mb disk, tk50 tape drive. The cost is > a little more than we were hoping to spend. I have three questions: > > 1) Would a DECstation 2100 have enough muscle to perform the above tasks? Probably, but the DECstation is still a workstation. You probably don't want the extra graphics hardware and certainly don't want to run any of the windowing software. I don't think we offer the 2100 in a DECsystem version. Still if the monochrome, smallest monitor 2100 costs less than a DECsystem 3100 then you can probably find a way to turn it into a DECsystem. Also check the prices of the 5100. I would expect that they are higher then the 2100/3100, but maybe not. > 2) Is 8MB enough memory? Probably not. I have access to a DECsystem 3100 running V3.1D and just sitting pretty idle it's using about 10 MB of memory. Hopefully we'll fix that problem someday... > 3) Can we get away with a smaller disk? I know it is possible to save money > by buying a non-DEC SCSI disk, but I have heard you have to do some magic > to use a SCSI disk as your boot disk, and given my limited (none) ultrix > expertise, I don't think this would be smart. ULTRIX without the workstation stuff (DECwindows, X, etc) should comfortably fit onto two RZ24's. I don't know if this is a supported configuration though. The installation can get real hard if you don't have what the installation scripts think is a supported configuration. > > Please reply directly to me if possible and thanks in advance for any > help you can offer. > > Robin Goldstone, Systems Software Specialist -- Alan Rollow alan@nabeth.enet.dec.com