SPARCstorage [tm] Array Model 214 RSM [tm] questions
I acquired a SPARCstorage [tm] Array Model 214 RSM [tm] and have a couple of questions.
1. When the unit is powered up it lights all the drives and you can hear them spinning, then one by one the lights turn off and the drives power down but the red power led is still lit. What is happening here and why?
2. I have a Compaq Proliant 800 with MS W2K server installed. What would I need to use this array with the server?
3. What is the maximum size hard drive this array can manage?
Thanks in advance,
Lynn
[543 byte] By [
llively2] at [2007-11-26 10:37:53]
# 1
Need a little more info. The SSA 214 was designed for 4Gb drives, there was a model 219 that used 9 Gb drives. Each tray (6 per unit) connected thru High Voltage Differential SCSI up to a fiber controller. The controller used a 25Mb fiber connection to the host, which was Sun/Sparc only (sbus cards). From the host the total array would appear as cX, each tray would map as tY and the disks would be dZ (cXtYdZ). There was small cache in the controller, but you would manage the array using a host based volumemanger like disk suite or Veritas VM. The utilities to manage the array were last seen in Solaris 9.
# 2
See a drawing of the entire 2-meter tall (56" actually) SSA214.
http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/SSA_214_Rack/SSA_214_Rack.html
This next drawing is of an individual disk 'tray', named a RSM214
(Raid Storage Module)
http://sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_pub/Systems/SSA_214_7Slot/SSA_214_7Slot.html
Each RSM could hold as many as 7 drives, including the RAID spare.
Both links are from the Sun System Handbook.
# 3
There wasn't a Raid spare on this unit, it was in effect a JBOD that you would use software raid on the host.
To the original question, there wasn't a Windows or PCI based card made to hook up to the array fiber controller, only sbus cards. You could hook up one of the drive trays directly to an HVD SCSI card, but just the trays. The trays only came with 4 or 9 Gb drives.
# 4
Personal opinion only, but ...
They should find someone who actually could use it, and unload it.
Quickly.
The time, effort, and expense necessary to mostly make it work with their Win2k3 system
(try finding a compatible HVD card, for example)
would be much better spent on other hardware.
# 5
The Array is a 214 with 4.29 GB Seagates and it is not a rack mount 219.
So what you are saying is that if I use it anywhere I will need more componets like a high voltage SCSI controller or some type of controller to enable it to be seen on any system I use.
Thanks for the links to the documentation on this unit.
So it is unsure what capacity limit the array may have for larger hard drives in your knowledge. I saw that the did come with an optional
# 6
Ok, so it is just a single tray with 7 disks? Then it is just a HVD SCSI tray of drives, could be connected to a HVD pci card. If the drives are powering off there was an evironmental monitoring card that could be flaky and shutting it off. Also the tray required 230V power to run, as it was a rack unit.
The units went End of Support Life at Sun January 2004, the drives are simply single ended scsi, if you wanted to open the plastic clam shell and put in larger ones, its your system and good luck
# 7
lets see here i also own 4) RSM 214
i think they came out of an E5500 (not sure) but i also bought the cabinet with no E5500 :(
any ways i have bein running them arrays on a sparc20 for some time with the 370-1704 cards worked ok then i got a ultra2 useing the same cards cant rember the part# for the faster HVD card but thier out thier
since then i have upgraded again this time to a proliant5500 useing AHA-2944UW cards and OpenBSD4.0 (works great)
why im here is what is the part# for that fiber mulity plexer thingy
and is it worth tracking down ?
im useing raidframe on the 28 drives but would love a hardware raid5 / 10 controler
what the first person was asking was:
what is the biggist drive tested in the array (i think)
and i hope they got they NEED HVD CONTROLERS !!!!!!!!!
i my self have not tryed to put any thing bigger in since all my other scsi drives are 68pin but did drop a ibm4.3GB in to replace one of the seagates
sorry this is so big but these arrays are old, getting cheap! and dont have much doc's to them
hope this will help some one out later on down the road
# 8
The fiber multiplexer thingy wasn't a hardware raid item. It did have a small cache, but any raid set up of the drives required using either DiskSuite or Veritas VM. I wouldn't say its worth looking for the unit as the hbas to talk to it were sbus only, unless you are also using an older sparc system as well.
# 9
ok lets try this again
WHAT WAS THE SUN PART NUMBER FOR FIBER CHANNEL INTERFACE
"The SPARCstorage Array Model 214 RSM includes a Fibre Channel interface, support for RAID levels 0,1, 0+and 5, and an integrated volume manager. Each array can deliver a sustained transfer rate of 24 megabytes/sec. for sequential access application, and over 3300 uncached I/O operations per second"
as you should of read i do have a SparcServer20 and an ultra enterprise 2
so sbus is not a problem
the prolem is finding this part number and findng documentation on the Fibre Channel interface
http://www.sun.com/smi/Press/sunflash/1996-04/sunflash.960416.7165.xml
good page to read but both numbers are no good
to sum it up that is the modle number for the Fibre Channel interface
# 10
Well, if you look in the EOL Systems section of the System handbook, you will find the following under the RSM 214-
540-2653 SPARCstorage Chassis Assembly
501-3021 Differential SCSI Array Controller (110MHz)
370-1426 Fibre Channel Optical Module
501-2857 Battery Module
501-2670 Differential SCSI to Fibre Channel Adapter
540-2465 Power Supply Assembly/FRU
Those were the parts that made up the controller. You need them *all* to have an FC connection to the RSM tray. Then you need the appropriate sbus card in your host, 501-2069 is the part for that, which I found in the EOL System Handbook under the Ultra 2. That card would also need a Fiber Channel Optical Module.
I saw that you used to have them connected to older sparc boxes, but you also said you have it connected to a BSD x86 system, and that is what I assumed you wanted now.
You also seem to be under the impression it is a hardware RAID controller, in fact stated that is what you would like to end up with. It DOES NOT DO HARDWARE RAID, you have to use software raid (disk suite or Veritas VM). When connected to Sparc systems it automatically generated a license for Veritas, I doubt that that feature has continued beyond VxVM 3.0.
The FC interface was 25Mb/s, it was a very primitive point to point, and only Sun cards ever supported it. No fabric switch or even a fabric hub can talk to it.
