Miscellaneous Operating Systems/Hardware

Hello,
I'm looking to attach a rack disk array to my Octane. Searching in auction sites (it must be cheap) I found a lot of Fibre Channel arrays from LSI, Hitachi or EMC.

Is any brand of SCSI disk arrays? Yes, I know the Sun StorEdge but I want something like LSI or SGI TP900. Unfortunately it seems that there are very few and very expensive TP900. Maybe have I to change the QLA12160 to Qlogic FC?
What do you think?

Thanks.

Titox wrote: Hello,
I'm looking to attach a rack disk array to my Octane. Searching in auction sites (it must be cheap) I found a lot of Fibre Channel arrays from LSI, Hitachi or EMC.

Is any brand of SCSI disk arrays? Yes, I know the Sun StorEdge but I want something like LSI or SGI TP900. Unfortunately it seems that there are very few and very expensive TP900. Maybe have I to change the QLA12160 to Qlogic FC?
What do you think?

Thanks.

I have an High Voltage differential OriginVault (1a) connected to an IBM 7025-F80 and a few "flame style" stones and a clarion FC array as well as the stones connecteed to the Smoke/Flame Tezro.. My problem with fiber is it seems far more brittle. Make sure you learn the commands "scsicontrol" to stop drives, etc. (1b)

I take what I can get my hands on, cheaply and easily... Other people wait until they can get just what they want in terms of speed and a capacity. I think a far better option is gigabit networking and nice modern NAS with a few Tb of shiny, newer, faster drives.


R.

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1a. Looks like an Origin200 and also looks like its been through the same rock tumbler as my skinless o200...
1b. LVM stuff and what ever else... varryonvg, etc for AIX, etc, etc

Ups, sorry. I forgot to say I have two QLA12160 (Shoebox + Shoehorn) in the Octane so only LVD arrays. And I'm interested in performance, I want to play with a bunch of 15K hard disks in RAID 0.

PymbleSoftware wrote: I think a far better option is gigabit networking and nice modern NAS with a few Tb of shiny, newer, faster drives.

I've solved this last year. One HP Microserver + Windows + Microsoft NFS server. It does the job very good but my StorEdge S1 with two 15K is faster so I want a second unit for the other card- The StorEdge S1 only has three slots and I want more. Sun 3120 and 3310 are a good arrays but too expensive even without caddys!!

I'd go FC or one of the FC-{IDE|SATA} models.

If you want a straight SCSI one the only one I have any experience with is the DEC StorageWorks setups. They seem to be pretty good, but I haven't used them on SGIs - only Alphas/VAXes.

I got an empty Dell PowerVault 220S chassis with my Tezro. That's a dual channel LVD SCSI JBOD, either Ultra160 or Ultra320 speed (mine is U320). You can find them pretty cheap on eBay etc.

If you get something like this, try to get one with a handful of disk brackets, or the brackets may end up costing you more than the chassis. At least for a DELL you won't have troubles to find spare parts Disks are also cheaper in quantity (I got 72GB 15K.3 disks for mine for less than 10EUR a piece).

Also, keep in mind that disk arrays are noisy, power hungry buggers. You don't want to spend too much time close to one of them. If all you want is some direct attached storage, and you don't need the high IOPs possible with many spindles, there's a much more enjoyable solution: I've got a small external SCSI box with two 300GB 10K.7 disks (68pin UW), seen in front of my Tezro here:

I was extremely lucky with the disks (they cost me 25EUR each I think, and the box was probably a freebie). Each of these disks would nearly max out an U160 bus, and the bandwidth of the PCI cardcage of an Octane isn't much bigger than that either.

SAQ wrote: I'd go FC or one of the FC-{IDE|SATA} models.

I have mixed feelings about the IDE/SATA models. Compared to 'genuine' FC or SCSI, they offer bigger storage capacity, but slower disks. If all you want is lots of storage and speed isn't a priority, why not simply stuff a couple of large SATA disks in a NAS or a Linux box and NFS mount them? IMHO, bulk storage belongs in a server anyway. Also, they usually support only specific disks, so if you don't buy the array with the disks you're SOL, and if a disk dies on you as well. The temptation is to fill one with 2TB disks, but most likely it's not going to work.

jan-jaap wrote: I got an empty Dell PowerVault 220S chassis with my Tezro. That's a dual channel LVD SCSI JBOD, either Ultra160 or Ultra320 speed (mine is U320). You can find them pretty cheap on eBay etc.

Very nice array. With dual controllers you can connect 7 hd's to one QLA and the other 7 to the second QLA. Right?

Who has some experience with HP arrays? The HP Disk System 2100 seems good for a 4 disks, but then I will need two arrays. IBM Exp models maybe?

Dell is winning now...

jan-jaap wrote: enjoyable solution: I've got a small external SCSI box with two 300GB 10K.7 disks (68pin UW), seen in front of my Tezro here

Where did you find that SCSI UW middle tower ? I have been looking for something similar since a while

ivelegacy wrote: where have you fount that middle SCSI UW tower ? I have been locking for something similar since a while

It found me Sometimes when you buy a system you get the software and peripherals as well and that's how I got this thing.