pwolfe@kailand.KAI.COM (10/03/88)
Sure, it's worth looking into. Sequent charges about $20,000 for a Fujitsu M2344K (550 Mb formatted) disk drive, with mounting rack and power supply. I get these disks from a third party supplier for $8,000, complete. The disks from Sequent come formatted and tested, and are easier to install, but we've saved $12,000 on each of the eight drives I've installed, which I feel is worth the extra time and hassle involved. Installation the drives and cables takes about 1.5 hours, formatting takes between 3 and 5 hours per drive, depending on the total number of errors. The formatting procedure from Sequent's DYNIX Administration manual is correct and complete. If anyone is interested in more detailed information, I will mail or post my written procedure for purchasing and installing M2344K's on a Sequent system. Patrick Wolfe System Manager, Kuck and Associates, Inc. Patrick.Wolfe@kailand.kai.com -or- kailand!Patrick.Wolfe
pwolfe@kailand.KAI.COM (10/04/88)
/* Written 1:01 pm Oct 3, 1988 by peter@clsib21.UUCP in kailand:comp.sys.sequent */ > > BUT!!!! The DCC is a VERY intelligent controller. So intelligent, you have > to be intimately familiar with it and the drive to get the timing right. > > We had to take a three-day course from Sequent to figure this whole thing > out. Let's just say that adding drives is a non-trivial project. > > Of course, theoretically, you could add any SMD-interface drive to the DCC > if you had enough information. Adding disk drives is ONLY non-trivial if you try to add drives that Sequent doesn't already support. A quick peek into /etc/disktab shows which drives they currently support on the DCC: Fuji M2333K, M2351A (eagle), M2344K, M2382K, CDC 9715-340, and 9771-800. Adding those drives is relatively trivial, compared to adding unsupported drives. One problem (detailed in a talk given by Purdue University at the 1987 Sequent User's Group meeting) is that the disk format programs Sequent delivers has the drive parameters hard coded in, instead of reading them from a user-editable table. So even if you know all the information that the format program needs, you need the *source* code to be able to add drives. This eliminated any chance we had for adding non-supported drives. Patrick Wolfe System Manager, Kuck and Associates, Inc. Patrick.Wolfe@kailand.kai.com -or- kailand!Patrick.Wolfe
peter@clsib21.UUCP (Peter Craine) (10/06/88)
> > One problem (detailed in a talk given by Purdue University at the 1987 > Sequent User's Group meeting) is that the disk format programs Sequent > delivers has the drive parameters hard coded in, instead of reading them from > a user-editable table. So even if you know all the information that the format > program needs, you need the *source* code to be able to add drives. This > eliminated any chance we had for adding non-supported drives. > Yes, you need some source, but the only source you need is in the distribution kits. There are five files to modify: /sys/stand/conf_zd.c /sys/zdc/zdc.h /sys/conf/conf_zd.c /sys/conf/controller.balance (only potentially) /etc/disktab The real problem is not having the source, but understanding what must be changed/added to support the drives. In particular, /sys/stand/conf_zd.c is the "non-trivial" portion of adding support I alluded to in my previous posting. So, you don't need any more source, but this doesn't make the problem any less severe. Peter Craine
pwolfe@kailand.KAI.COM (10/08/88)
When the Sequent User Group met in 1987, the current release of DYNIX was V2.1. I was not aware that things had changed with V3.0. Thanks you Sequent for making this code available! Patrick Wolfe System Manager, Kuck and Associates, Inc. Patrick.Wolfe@kailand.kai.com -or- kailand!Patrick.Wolfe