gilad@il3cad.intel.com (Gilad Yaron) (03/07/90)
We currently have 4 vax8800 and 2 vax6310 running Ultrix3.1. All the disks of these vaxes are connected thru 2 HSCs. As the number of disks ports is limitted, we would like very much to connect a third hsc (which we already have since the good 'ole VMS days) According to DEC documentation, only 2 hscs are supported under ultrix (Yes, I did RTFM). Is anybody out there using more than 2 hsc is ultrix environment? -- -------------------------------------------------------------------- Gilad Yaron - Intel Design technology - Haifa | Never say I Bitnet Adress: gilad@il5cad.intel.com | didn't warn you! --------------------------------------------------------------------
grr@cbmvax.commodore.com (George Robbins) (03/07/90)
In article <12674@il3cad.intel.com> gilad@il3cad.intel.com (Gilad Yaron) writes: > We currently have 4 vax8800 and 2 vax6310 running Ultrix3.1. > All the disks of these vaxes are connected thru 2 HSCs. > > As the number of disks ports is limitted, we would like very much to > connect a third hsc (which we already have since the good 'ole VMS > days) > > According to DEC documentation, only 2 hscs are supported under ultrix > (Yes, I did RTFM). It's an interesting question, which only someone at DEC or with access to appropriate sources can answer conclusively. Most of the max # of devices issues are really "soft" limits based on the number of devices configured into "BINARY.vax", the source of all the objects for "binary" systems. The resulting number shows up in two places - first as sanity checks on the maximum device number (checks on minor device number) and second as the size of statically allocated tables. The first item requires object patching to circumvent, the second can be a real problem if the tables are contained in the object modules, however many are actually in "c" from in the /sys/data directory. One expample where people have gotten burned is in the number of serial interfaces. Apparently there are enough buried tables with 10 entries that trying to exceed the suported number of interfaces results in some entries getting corrupted. The case of the HSC's a bit non-obvious, since there don't seem to be any visible data elements, BINARY.vax has only one HSC defined, there is no obvious kernel error message for "too many HSC's" and so forth. Since you have the metal lying about, probably the simplest thing is to plug it in, tell one of the "less critical" systems it has 3 hsc's and see what happens. Obviously there is some risk associcated with such a course, but unless someone from DEC is willing to step forth with the true facts or you can get clarification from DEC, I don't see a whole lot of choice... -- George Robbins - now working for, uucp: {uunet|pyramid|rutgers}!cbmvax!grr but no way officially representing: domain: grr@cbmvax.commodore.com Commodore, Engineering Department phone: 215-431-9349 (only by moonlite)
avolio@decuac.DEC.COM (Frederick M. Avolio) (03/08/90)
The support you are looking for is expected to be in the next release of ULTRIX. Fred