cpcahil@virtech.uucp (Conor P. Cahill) (03/06/90)
In article <1990Mar6.221901.5242@actrix.co.nz> paul@actrix.co.nz (Actrix Super User) writes: >Hi there, I'm keen to find out about any controllers and software that >exist for disk mirroring and/or striping under ISC 386/ix. I would >prefer a SCSI controller, but ESDI would do. It's for a medical >application, and required very high fault tolerance. Also, what tools >exist for monitoring and recovering from faults under a mirroring >scheme? The DPT (Distributed Processing Technologies) Caching disk controller has an optional disk mirroring module that can be used for any of it's controllers (ESDI, SCSI, MFM). What I know about it is all marketing hype, so you probably want to test some of it. It is supposed to automatically handle the mirroring. If a problem comes up with a sector on one of the drives, it is supposed to get the sector from the other drive and while returning that sector to you, reformat, or if necessary map out, the bad sector. I don't know if this is actually done on a per-sector or per-track basis. If a drive failure occurs, the card is supposed to emit a whine so that you can tell it has happened. When you shut down the system and install a new drive, it is supposed to automatically format the new drive and copy the data from the other drive, while your system is happily running on it's merry way (not waiting for the format/copy to complete). Like I said, this is all marketing hype that I got from a distributer, so you need to check with DPT themselves and probably test it out. let me know if you find out anything different. >Incidentally, I'm also trying (somewhat belatedly) to install 386/ix >on an HP Vectra 25/C. It keeps failing soon after the media surface >analysis, with excessive bad sectors, and refuses to install. I have >tried using different interleaves, including 2 as recommended in the >manual. The controller is an ESDI (HP part number), and is on a 300Mb >drive. If I recall correctly 386/ix has a problem when there are lots of bad sectors. If you have an intelligent disk controller that will handle the defects itself (like the DPT controler, or the WD1007 ESDI controller) you should use the controller to format and mark bad sectors and then tell interactive to skip the format/bad sectors stuff (I.E. don't format the drive and don't perform a surface analysis). -- Conor P. Cahill (703)430-9247 Virtual Technologies, Inc., uunet!virtech!cpcahil 46030 Manekin Plaza, Suite 160 Sterling, VA 22170
paul@actrix.co.nz (Paul Gillingwater) (03/07/90)
Hi there, I'm keen to find out about any controllers and software that exist for disk mirroring and/or striping under ISC 386/ix. I would prefer a SCSI controller, but ESDI would do. It's for a medical application, and required very high fault tolerance. Also, what tools exist for monitoring and recovering from faults under a mirroring scheme? Incidentally, I'm also trying (somewhat belatedly) to install 386/ix on an HP Vectra 25/C. It keeps failing soon after the media surface analysis, with excessive bad sectors, and refuses to install. I have tried using different interleaves, including 2 as recommended in the manual. The controller is an ESDI (HP part number), and is on a 300Mb drive. Any assistance on the above would be much appreciated. Thanks, Paul Gillingwater HP New Zealand -- Paul Gillingwater, paul@actrix.co.nz
support@ism780c.isc.com (Support account) (03/08/90)
In article <1990Mar6.221901.5242@actrix.co.nz> paul@actrix.co.nz (Actrix Super User) writes: >Incidentally, I'm also trying (somewhat belatedly) to install 386/ix >on an HP Vectra 25/C. It keeps failing soon after the media surface >analysis, with excessive bad sectors, and refuses to install. I have This problem occurs because HP marks whole tracks rather than just sectors bad. If a significant number of sectors are bad, this can quickly fill up the table whose max number of bad sectors has been increased to approximately 250 in the V2.0 series of 386/ix. HP has a workaround diskette. ....