RS6000/J30 HOT SWAPPABLE DISK
ITEM: RTA000054896
QUESTION:
Regarding the RS6000/J30 Hot Swappable Disk:
1. Are they dependent on the operating system? Why are they only
available on the J30?
2. Where can I find specifications on these disks? Announcement Letter?
Sales Manual?
Thanks in advance for your assistance.
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A: Question 1:
If your first question is concerning why the hot-pluggable disk is
not available on the G30 and R30 SMP machines, then I can not provide
you a definite reason. This may be due to a marketing decision or
due to an engineering design decision.
Question 2:
Specifications on the 1.1GB SCSI-2 F/W disk and the 2.2GB SCSI-2 F/W
disk can be found in the Systems Overview and Planning on page 1-96
(GC23-2406-05). Some of the basic statistics for the disk drives are
copied below from the Salesmanual:
Average Media
Formatted Seek Average Rotational Transfer
Models Capacity Time Latency Speed Rate
------ --------- ------ ------- --------- --------
112 1.1 GB 7.2ms 4.17ms 7200 RPM 20 MB/sec
317 2.2 GB 7.8ms 4.17ms 7200 RPM 20 MB/sec
If you or your customer have a definite need for hot-pluggable disks
on other SMP machines, please submit an RPQ (Request for Price
Quotation) or REQUEST to Development. This would allow Development
a chance to comment feasibility of the future support of this
product and alert IBM to the need for such an offering.
Thank you.
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QUESTION:
Thank you for your response. Could you please check to see why the
Hot Swappable is available on the J30 only, engineering or marketing?
And why, if it is an engineering reason?Is the Hot Swappable Operating
System dependent or is there another technical reason it only runs on
the J30?
Also, is the Systems Overview & Planning Guide the only source for
information on the hot swappable disk technology. I could not find
very much info there. What about announcement letter's or salesman?
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A:
Based on pre-release notes that I have studied, the decision to have
hot-pluggable disks in the initial design of the mid-range J30 SMPs
appears to have been a marketing decision. There are no specific
limitations that we at ASKQ know of related to the development and
design of the G30 and R30 that would prevent one from installing
hot-swappable disks. The hot pluggable bays require additional
mounting hardware to allow SE devices to connect to the DE adapter
bus and to allow the drives to be easily removed.
We can only speculate further.
Information about the disk drives:
This information is available in the 194-324 IBM RISC SYSTEM/6000
STORAGE I/O announcement letter dated 10-4-94:
The new 1.1GB, 2.2GB, and 4.5GB SCSI-2 Fast/Wide Disk Drives,
and the 1.1GB and 2.2GB Disk Drives, are high-performance 3.5-inch
form-factor disk drives that attach via an ANSI-SCSI-2 interface.
These compact drives provide additional price performance and growth
options for the RISC System/6000 family of systems.
o Form Factor: 3.5-inch
o Cable included: No
o External Interface: SCSI (8-bit and 16-bit, single-ended models)
o Attachment Industry Spec: ANSI/SCSI-2
o SCSI Bus Interface Speed: 10MB on 8-bit models, 20MB on 16-bit
models
o Command Set: SCSI-2
o Average Seek Time: 1.1GB = 7.2ms, 2.2GB = 7.8ms, 4.5GB = 8.3ms
(Average of four reads and one write)
o Average Latency: 4.17 ms
o Rotational Speed: 7200 RPM
o Media data Transfer Rate: 12.58 MB/s (maximum)
o Tag Command Queuing on all models
The Salesmanual entry on the 7013-J30 is less enlightening. This is
the only information available besides the Systems Overview and
Planning that contains information on these disks.
If you would like more information about the technology which makes
hot-swapping possible, I cannot offer any information beyond that
which is in the diagrams in the services guides for the 7013-J30,
7135, and the 9333 (SA23-2725-00, SY33-0181-03, and SY33-0168-02).
The 7135 and 9333 disk array subsystems also utilize hot-plugging
technology. I searched through our local data bases, ASKQ, the
Announcement Letters, and the Salesmanual. I also looked through all
available copies of the magazine AIXtra.
The 7135 and 9333 are available at AIX level 3.2.5. Therefore,
hot-plugging hardware technology is not dependent on 4.1.1. The
SMP machines were announced at 4.1.1.
In general, the hot pluggable feature provides a means to swap disk
drives out without powering down the system. There are no definitive
sources of information available to ASKQ on the design, however.
Thank you.
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This item was created from library item Q678638 FFTQH
Additional search words:
AUTO AUTOMATIC DASD DISC DISKETTE FFTQH HARDWARE HOT IX JAN95 J30
OZIBM OZNEW RISCOHW RISCSYSTEM SWAPPABLE
WWQA: ITEM: RTA000054896 ITEM: RTA000054896
Dated: 10/1996 Category: RISCOHW
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