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Conference ssag::ask_ssag

Title:	Ask the Storage Architecture Group
Notice:	Check out our web page at http://www-starch.shr.dec.com
Moderator:	SSAG::TERZAN

Created:	Wed Oct 15 1986
Last Modified:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Last Successful Update:	Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:	6756
Total number of notes:	25276

6361.0. "Writable CDRom, CD Jukebox and RAID 450 Qs." by MQOOA::LEDOUX (Vincent -- DTN 632-7908) Thu Jan 30 1997 03:21

    Hi,
    
    Our Storagework specialist is on vacation and my customer
    need a speedy answer on the following 4 queries:
    Can anyone help?
    
    1. Does Digital support devices that can write standard CD-ROM? If not,
    is there a  third party products Digital would recommend which is
    supported under Digital  Unix?
    
    2. Same question for a CD-ROM jukebox type with a robot to use with
    standard CD-ROMs which would be accessible to users on a network?
    Concerning the quantity of CDs, 100 would be fine. This could also be a
    network device. Can be physically connected
    to a PC, as long as it can be controled from a DEC Unix platform on the
    same lan.
    
    3. The RAID 450 is available for storage solutions. This RAID 450 has
    apparently only 1 port useable at one time (2 redundant) per system for
    a total of 20MB/s throughput (by 2 different specialists at the
    StorageWorks hotline). I have been also told by a third specialist in
    the StorageWorks hotline groups, that both ports could be used
    silultanuously for a 40MB/s throughput. I am not sure which one is
    correct. Is the RAID 450 or are there other RAID box with more than 1
    port access from 1 system at the same time for a bandwidth of 40 MB/s
    or higher? What about from 2 different systems?
    
    4. On the same RAID box subject, I have also been told we can put wide
    disk inside the RAID 450 and that the wide transfer speed will be
    usable with future  controller since the current HSZ50 controller
    provides narrow SCSI channels. We are looking at this for a proposal
    and the equipment will be bought in stage in the next year or so... 
    Within this timimg will there be faster RAID box, or controller 
    available?

T.R	Title	User	Personal Name	Date	Lines
6361.1	some answers..	STOWKS::BULTE	Wilko Bulte - European Storage Engineering	`Fri Jan 31 1997 03:13`	32
	issue 1: Digital does not sell a CDR solution that I know off issue 2: same answer as 1. issue 3: the current 450 offering assumes a interlink cable between the 2 HSZ50 controllers. For the controllers to do transparant failover this is mandatory. Maybe the confusion comes from multirail failover. This means 2 independent cables to the host and host assisted failover in case a HSZ fails. This whole multirail thing is currently not supported, nor do I know of any plans to change this (and if I knew I was probably not allowed to discuss it here anyway ;-) Bottomline: interconnect the 2 HSZs and hook 'm up with one 20Mbyte/sec cable to the host. 2 different systems on this single cable may or may not be supported dependent on host system and operating system. There is no generic answer issue 4: RA450 allows wide drives top be used. Backplane wiring and HSZ50 are both 8 bit narrow. When new raidcontrollers become available that need 16 bit you'll have to use a different box with a 16 bit backplane. Other than that I will not discuss the products currently in development.. Hope this helps Wilko
6361.2	CD-R Supported Via InfoServer	XDELTA::HOFFMAN	Steve, OpenVMS Engineering	`Fri Jan 31 1997 09:20`	18
	: 1. Does Digital support devices that can write standard CD-ROM? If not, : is there a third party products Digital would recommend which is : supported under Digital Unix? We've supported the creation of CD-ROM (CD-R) for quite a few years, via a Digital InfoServer and one of a series of specified CD-R drives. See http://www.storage.digital.com/swrks/catalog/inf_html/info_prd/o_isrvr.htm http://www.digital.com/info/Customer-Update/940314005.txt.html ftp://ftp.digital.com/pub/Digital/info/SPD/33-20-XX.txt Part numbers: InfoServer CD/license: QL-0UWA9-AA InfoServer CD/R media and docs: QA-0UWAA-H8
6361.3	Note that .0 specifies DU	WAYLAY::GORDON	Resident Lightning Designer	`Fri Jan 31 1997 11:19`	10
	Yes, InfoServer has done CD-R support since V3.1 which shipped in December of 1993. Before you go too far down the InfoServer route though, please contact the InfoServer product manager Beth SUBSYS::Joseph to discuss the availability of the Digital Unix client for InfoServer. I know it's in the works, but I don't know when it will be available. --Doug