[Info-vax] External disk options for a XP900/DS10 series box ?

[Rich Jordan]

On Jun 30, 12:45 pm, hel... at astro.multiCLOTHESvax.de (Phillip Helbig---
undress to reply) wrote:
> In article <iuf7vt$gr... at news.albasani.net>, Jan-Erik Soderholm
>
> <jan-erik.soderh... at telia.com> writes:
> > I currently have a XP900 with 3 internal disks.
> > No shadowing currently. I now just *have* to move
> > the storage out of the box...
>
> I agree that's a good idea, but what makes it so urgent in your case?
>
> > My budget is something around $1.000-1.500 USD.
>
> > My need is aprox 3-4 2-disk shadowsets. So 6-8 drives.
> > I'd like to move the system disk out of the box also
> > which is included in these disks.
>
> Presumably SBBs in a BA356 is not an option?  :-)

I posted to the other topic (but via Google so who knows when or if it
will show up).  I stuck with SCSI, and in Alphas that means U160
performance since HP could never be bothered to qualify a U320
controller....

I got a couple of generic LVD SCSI enclosures cheap; they have 68-pin
D connectors on the back and for their internal cabling, and were U160
or U320 rated.  I bought some SCSI cages with caddies intended for use
in SuperMicro and Intel servers (they were options to increase the
number of drives in those servers).  These have one or two 68-pin
connectors and usually two standard disk power connectors (and the
SuperMicro came with its own fan).   I hacked the enclosures so the
cages would mount in the space where individual drives used to go.  In
one case that involved riveting a steel strip across the top of the
opening so the caddy latches would have something to 'catch' on.  I
also hacked the enclosure cables (basically cut the middle section out
leaving two connectors; one for the 'in' on the cage, one for the
'out') or replaced them with a new one-device-to-bulkhead cable from
ebay and used the cage's terminator internally (that enclosure can't
be daisy chained, of course).

Originally I used standard 3.5" U160 or U320 3.5" drives; with SCA-2
connectors they tended to be cheaper than the drives with 68-pin
connectors, and ALL of the enclosures I've found have the
corresponding SCA-2 sockets on their backplanes.  Worked, but a little
hot and noisy.

I've seen 4 and 6-drive cages on Ebay and Amazon for reasonable money;
complete enclosures with caddies tend to cost quite a bit more.  I've
also seen quite a few Compaq/HP Proliant cages available; that would
allow you to put together a solution using the Compaq universal hot
swap drives, going up to 300GB/drive, but I'd be careful to make sure
the enclosure had sufficient cooling; those run hot.

More recently I bought some of those aforementioned Savvio drives.
Using Silverstone SDP08 3.5 to 2 X 2.5-Inch Bay Converters (designed
to mount two SSD drives into the space of one 3.5" drive bay) I was
able to mount the Savvio's into the caddies for the SuperMicro cage (I
haven't had time to try the Intel cage yet but it looks like it will
work there too); its not perfect since I had to adjust my riveted
latching bar out about 1.5mm but it lines up perfectly with the
connectors, and has worked for months; its quieter and uses about 30%
less power than before (4 each 73GB drives replacing 4 each 18GB).
And according to my handy infrared thermometer gun the drives are
running at a safe temperature even though the enclosure uses a big
slow 4" case fan for cooling.

I also have one Savvio internally in my DS10L at home right now (I
still need to replace a failing KZPEA); they are a little finicky
about the 80-68 pin adapter boards they will work with so be careful
with them.

Sorry, I don't have info on other options; as you mentioned the
various approved fibrechannel options are just too noisy and hot so I
gave them a pass.