From: Chris Los (clos@trentu.ca)
Date: Mon Jun 09 2003 - 10:26:09 EDT
Thanks to all who responded. Here are the responses that sum it all up.
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From: "Alan Rollow - Dr. File System's Home for Wayward Inodes."
Subject: Re: Connecting StorageWorks Shelves to Native SCSI bus on AS2100
Sort of. But...
The native SCSI adapter of the AlphaServer 2100 is Fast/Narrow
and Single-ended. Being narrow, it is limited to 7 devices
and one of those is the CDROM. That leaves with addressing
for six devices. I suspect the cabling that supports using
a built-in enclosure on the internal SCSI bus is only designed
for connecting a single enclosure.
It is worth noting that 2100s that didn't use one of the
backplane RAID controllers did usually have an enclosure
on the internal SCSI (*). Typically the enclosure was
setup for only having four slots available of the eight.
I am making the possibly unsafe assumption that the same
StorageWorks enclosure was used by the two setups.
Whether the cabling is available, if not already present
and how feasible it is to add such cabling in the field
is a different matter.
For the other enclosure, it may be possible to have a 2nd
SCSI adapter and use internal cabling to connect to the
enclosure. That will let you 7 slots of the enclosure,
but the 8th slot will still be unavailable, since you need
a bus address for the SCSI adapter.
(*) Most 2100s that I've seen used the internal bus and had
a single StorageWorks enclosure built-in. But, it is fair
to say that I've seen every 2100.
From: "Dr Thomas.Blinn@HP.com" <tpb@doctor.zk3.dec.com>
Subject:Re: Connecting StorageWorks Shelves to Native SCSI bus on AS2100
The driver for the KZPSC is still in the product (because it's used by
a new RAID controller that is still supported, even in V5.1B) so your
old KZPSC *might* just work. You probably should give it a try before
you mess around with the hardware.
If it really doesn't work, you'll have to find the documentation for
your system's configuration and figure out how the shelves are set up.
You also need to identify more clearly what you hope to use. I don't
have a lot of personal experience with the old 2100 models, but I'd
bet it has an old "KZPAA-AA" which was based on the NCR810 SCSI ship
which is fast/narrow/single-ended SCSI. It's probably compatible with
the SW shelves in the system enclosure, but the shelves may well be set
up in some strange way to work with the KZPSC, and you'll have to figure
that out and perhaps recable things or make other changes. I simply do
not know what was common practice in configuring those systems at the
factory for use with the older UNIX software.
So, my advice is first try using the KZPSC, and if that doesn't work,
you might consider seeking out a used instance of the replacement, it
is still a supported product.
Tom
From: "Degerness, Mandell MSER:EX" <Mandell.Degerness@gems2.gov.bc.ca>
Subject:RE: Connecting StorageWorks Shelves to Native SCSI bus on AS2100
The internal bus does not have enough SCSI addresses available for your two
internal shelves full of disks. I think that you may find the addresses on
the two shelves repeat as well. The internal SCSI bus will have one or two
addresses which are used. One is used for the tape drive. I can't remember
correctly if the floppy is on a the internal SCSI bus or not.
You have two options:
1) Connect your internal SCSI to one of the shelves with (if I remember
correctly) the five disks that you can use in this configuration.
2) Purchase one or two SCSI controllers to connect to the internal shelves
(with only one, you will have to remove a disk or two from the shelf
connected to the internal bus).
Regards,
Mandell Degerness
From: "McCracken, Denise" <Denise.McCracken@misyshealthcare.com>
Subject: RE: Connecting StorageWorks Shelves to Native SCSI bus on AS2100
If you're planning on doing a migration from 4.0f->5.0a->5.1a, get
ready to feel some pain. We spent months working on a plan for that here
and finally ended up doing fresh start installs.
From: Warren Sturm <wrsturm@mtroyal.ab.ca>
Subject: Re: Connecting StorageWorks Shelves to Native SCSI bus on AS2100
Why not just leave them connected to the KZPSC's? They still work with
5.1A. I have two systems with KZPSC/PAC's installed that are running
5.1A PK4.
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Original question:
We need to upgrade our AS2100 5/300 from tru46 4.0F to 5.0A and then to 5.1A. The server has 2 internal storageworks shelves fully loaded with RZx type drives. These shelves are connected to the system via KZPSC 3-channel controller. The release notes for 5.0A indicate the hardware support for the KZPSC has been dropped. I would like to know if its possible to connect the sw-shelves to the system using its native SCSI bus?? Is this possible. I realize we would lose the RAID support but thats ok as the machine is just a testbed and we can live without the RAID.
TIA,
Chris Los
Trent University
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