24 Oct
2004
24 Oct
'04
4:22 a.m.
I recently inherited a stack of Fibre Channel gizmos made by Compaq:
three x12 hubs, a tape controller, and a Storageworks modular
data router.
eBay prices are all over the map: some sellers trying to
unload them for $1000+, but the real auctions are going for
less than $50 for each box. Each slot in the hub needs an
optical transceiver; these seem to sell for $10 each.
Cables? Many offered, few bidders. FC hard drives? $20 each.
This stuff cost a fortune not so long ago. Why is it
rock-bottom now? Will it ever be attractive to hobbyists?
- John
24 Oct
24 Oct
4:31 a.m.
On Sunday 24 October 2004 11:22, John Foust wrote:
I recently inherited a stack of Fibre Channel gizmos
made by Compaq:
three x12 hubs, a tape controller, and a Storageworks modular
data router.
eBay prices are all over the map: some sellers trying to
unload them for $1000+, but the real auctions are going for
less than $50 for each box. Each slot in the hub needs an
optical transceiver; these seem to sell for $10 each.
Cables? Many offered, few bidders. FC hard drives? $20 each.
This stuff cost a fortune not so long ago. Why is it
rock-bottom now? Will it ever be attractive to hobbyists?
Yeah, I found it really attractive because of the price, which is why I
bought 3.7-ish TB of it several months ago. I figured getting it at
less than $1/GB, including JBOD's, raid widgets, FC hubs, FC switches,
cables (all copper FC), a pair of racks, and PDUs, as well as 1.4TB
worth of 18GB SCSI drives (from an EMC I wished to use with my S/390
but didn't have any ESCON as expected) which was "thrown in" was a good
deal. And, the drives are probably more reliable than an off-the-shelf
[P|S]ATA drive.
Of course, the power comsumption on a 200GB+ IDE drive is probably less
than 1/4 that of four of my 50GB FC-AL disks...
Pat
--
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26 Oct
26 Oct
8:37 a.m.
What brand names/model numbers are on the disk enclosures? MTI? Goliath?
Anything like that? Curious.
What I REALLY want to know is how many SCSI drives are in the drive
enclosures, how many drives total you have, and what the capacity of the
individual drives are. If they are 18gb or 36gb or larger, and SCA
connector (single mini-D connector on the drive itself within the carrier
that slides into the drive enclosure) I'd be potentially interested.
-T
I recently inherited a stack of Fibre Channel gizmos
made by Compaq:
three x12 hubs, a tape controller, and a Storageworks modular
data router.
eBay prices are all over the map: some sellers trying to
unload them for $1000+, but the real auctions are going for
less than $50 for each box. Each slot in the hub needs an
optical transceiver; these seem to sell for $10 each.
Cables? Many offered, few bidders. FC hard drives? $20 each.
This stuff cost a fortune not so long ago. Why is it
rock-bottom now? Will it ever be attractive to hobbyists?
- John
8:48 a.m.
What brand names/model numbers are on the disk
enclosures?
MTI? Goliath?
Anything like that? Curious.
What I REALLY want to know is how many SCSI drives are in the drive
enclosures, how many drives total you have, and what the
capacity of the
individual drives are. If they are 18gb or 36gb or larger, and SCA
connector (single mini-D connector on the drive itself within
the carrier
that slides into the drive enclosure) I'd be potentially interested.
No idea about the Compaq stuff, but I picked up a FC disk the other
day that was being discarded. I'd been told that "there's no such thing
as a FC disk - they're all SCSI really". Well this one is a Seagate
ST31820FC and has a 40-way (not 80-way) SCA connector on the back.
Any chance that this is SCSI in disguise :-) If so I'll go nab
a few of the 32GB ones for my VAXen, otherwise I get to try
the 9GB SCSI LVD ones instead!
Antonio
--
---------------
Antonio Carlini arcarlini(a)iee.org
9:15 a.m.
On Tue, Oct 26, 2004 at 09:48:38PM +0100, Antonio Carlini wrote:
No idea about the Compaq stuff, but I picked up a FC
disk the other
day that was being discarded. I'd been told that "there's no such thing
as a FC disk - they're all SCSI really". Well this one is a Seagate
ST31820FC and has a 40-way (not 80-way) SCA connector on the back.
My first exposure to FC _drives_ (as opposed to enclosures with genuine
SCSI drives and an external fiber link) was in 1997/1998... Seacrate,
IIRC. I remember a funky connector that was pretty small... smaller than
40-pins even, but I'm not as sure of that detail.
Any chance that this is SCSI in disguise :-) If so
I'll go nab
a few of the 32GB ones for my VAXen, otherwise I get to try
the 9GB SCSI LVD ones instead!
FC drives are SCSI command protocol, serialized data rather than parallel
(like a 50/68/80 pin drive), and some FC-oid physical layer/signals/voltages.
I am not aware of a simple adapter to use an FC drive with an older machine.
I have seen PCI and Sbus FC adapters. It might be possibly to cobble something
up with one of those, but not with, say, an Adaptec 1540.
-ethan
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South Pole Station
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9:29 a.m.
I am not aware of a simple adapter to use an FC drive
with an
older machine.
I have seen PCI and Sbus FC adapters. It might be possibly
to cobble something
up with one of those, but not with, say, an Adaptec 1540.
Me neither. I asked more in hope than in expectation!
I guess the VAX will have to make do with a brace of
9GB disks (assuming that a SCA-to-50pin converter
keeps it happy).
The next generation of storage backends seem to be IDE
(both PATA and, lately, SATA - at the cheap end, that is)
so maybe in a few years time I'll get something I can
drop into the Ultra as an upgrade!
Antonio
--
---------------
Antonio Carlini arcarlini(a)iee.org
9:03 a.m.
At 03:37 PM 10/26/2004, you wrote:
What brand names/model numbers are on the disk
enclosures? MTI? Goliath?
Anything like that? Curious.
All Compaq.
What I REALLY want to know is how many SCSI drives are
in the drive
enclosures, [...] and SCA
connector (single mini-D connector on the drive itself within the carrier
that slides into the drive enclosure) I'd be potentially interested.
No drives, just these items:
> I recently inherited a stack of Fibre Channel
gizmos made by Compaq:
> three x12 hubs, a tape controller, and a Storageworks modular
> data router.
And I thought these would use FC drives, not SCA drives...
although I bet there are ways to mix and match and carry SCSI over FC.
- John
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a.carlini＠ntlworld.com -
dickset＠amanda.spole.gov -
jfoust＠threedee.com -
pat＠computer-refuge.org -
tpeters＠mixcom.com