[Info-vax] Compaq Smartarray 5300 - test results

[Hans Vlems]

This is a follow up on a question I posted earlier, whether the Compaq
Smartarray 5300 would work on an AlphaServer 800 that runs VMS V8.4.
The Compaq Smartarray 5300 is not a supported device; a later model,
the 5300A is supported on some Alphaservers.
The on board configuration utility is accessible via the conssole
command
 >>> set boot pya0
Logical disks created on a Q-SA 5300 do not show up on the console and
can't consequently be used as a system disk. VMS however does
recognize them. The controller was PKC0: and always logged a single
error at boottime.
The logical volumes are called DKC0:, DKC1:, DKC2: etc.
An image backup from the system disk to RAID-1 set showed 440 ~ 480
IO's per second (MONITOR DISK), I've never seen values that high on
this AlphaServer 800 before.
Conclusion: the Smartarray 5300 may be unsupported but will work with
VMS 8.4 (on an AlphaServer 800).
Hans