On Mon, 6 Aug 2001 00:03:46 -0500, you wrote:
>
>Date: Sun, 5 Aug 2001 20:17:36 +0000
>From: Taylor Moore Family <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Converting old servers?
>
>I had the recent good fortune to acquire a couple of Compaq
>Proliant Series 3110 server boxes each containing five 2Gb
>SCSI drives, they were put out with the bins!
This is a significant amount of industrial grade storage to throw away
>I bought a suitable SCSI card ('IWill SIDE-2930C') and
>tried one of them in my P200 homebuild, and it seems fine,
>so assume the others are probably OK.
>
>The single CPU in each box is a DX50.
>
>What I would like to do, is rebuild the P200 into the
>server box for the sake of preserving the HD's in those
>lovely pull mounts where they are also adequately
>ventilated by their own fan. The power supplies seem fine.
Probably the better strategy would be to see if you can rebuild the
server boxes so they merely house power and cool the SCSI drives.
In other words disable the mainboard.
Your computer the present P200 or a future whatever needs a proper
SCSI card but you can connect to the external server box of drives
with a SCSI cable provided you stay within the length limits for
whatever type of SCSI it is and terminate correctly.
>The drive I tried in the homebuild got alarmingly hot
>without that benefit, and there is a note inside one of the
>servers warning not to touch or move any of the drives
>until they've cooled, so I assume this is normal!?
Seagate is noted for making red hot drives. Fairly noisy too.
This model though is quite a workhorse too.
It probably is the version with standard 50 pin connector.
As for what kind of mobile rack or hot swap arrangement you have and
its cabling and how it works that you will have to identify and
research. You will probably best forgo hopes of being able to retain
any hotswap capability. ie you won't spin down and replace drives
while system is operating.
If the whole array connects to the server mainboard with a single 50
pin cable its probably going to be pretty easy.
Namely do something like disconnect power to the old server mainboard.
Disconnect the one 50 pin cable going to the drive array and connect
it to an external connector. With the proper cable connect your
P200's SCSI card to the server box o'drives.
If the existing array is indeed "Fast SCSI: 10MB/sec" as it seems the
entire device chain including all cables should not exceed 3 meters
(though I'd keep it a bit shorter.)
The Iwill controller you have isn't necessarily optimum (?) for
controlling 5 such drives though it WILL work. Each of those Seagate
Hawk drives can externally xfer up to 10MB/sec. Don't laugh! because
unlike IDE ATA figures which nowadays are lots "faster" the SCSI
figures are more honest / realistic. The single channel Iwill
controller has an entire data bandwidth of 10 MB /sec.
Anyway you should try this before you conclude that a single $59
20GB IDE drive is in all ways always better. Because it isn't!
You have here some "industrial equipment" and while current consumer
stuff is quite good don't assume it is lots better.
>My main concern is to discover if this is feasible, and
>that the drives will be accessible in this way as C:, D:,
>E: etc.
Yes it is.
> I wondered if they might be wired into their edge
>connector cradles in such a way as to render this mounting
>only usable with the original MB?
Not likely. They must use standard SCSI cables and connectors of one
standard type or another.
>The only connection to
>the unit housing the drives (apart from the PS) is the SCSI
>ribbon cable, which would just as easily attach to the new
>SCSI card, but would it be compatible data wise does anyone
>know?
yes it is.
>>From the dearth of components on the board containing the 5
>edge connectors at the back of the drives assembly, the
>SCSI chipset has to be on the MB itself which also appears
>to have no IDE facility.
right.
>Neither machine boots up, there appearing to be no active
>BIOS or screen output, but power seems OK.
>
>The drives are all Seagate ST32430N
Seagate "Hawk" a common "workhorse". an array of drives like that
provides enough heads and platters to serve out database data to lots
of simultaneous users looking things up all at once.
Probably though ? using a controller a bit more sophisticated than
your Iwill?
>apart from 2X ST32550N,
>and one COMPAQ P/N 142292-001 (1GB).
>
>Any help on this much appreciated, thanks.
Get the SCSI FAQ. Use any search engine.
>Best wishes, Neil Taylor
Also search and get the tech manuals on the Proliant Server and above
all on each model hard drive you own.
By the way you can still use or maybe even boot from your existing IDE
hard drive.
Mark Paulson
San Jose, California
Silicon Valley
PCBUILD's List Owners:
Bob Wright<[log in to unmask]>
Drew Dunn<[log in to unmask]>
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