Re: EMC DASD (wasCISC to RISC conversion of data)

AND loading their "PTF's/microcode" and when we had them 6 years or so ago, here
in Indianapolis, THE PC for this was in Cleveland or Cincinatti or somewhere. We
had 8 EMC and 8 IBM's in a mirrored setup. One day system performance went to
heck. We FINALLY noticed (through work disk status and the percent busy) that 
the
EMC drives were going NUTS. It turns out that there was a "known" problem
(although NO effort was made to notify customers BEFORE they had the problem) 
and
it required a microcode update to the drives (via the notebook). The ERALLY bad
thing was, the EMC drives were "masking" this problem to the AS/400 in the 
normal
ways, EXCEPT via WRKDSKSTS... That is what we saw as a MAJOR problem; with IBM
drives, the system keeps the drives MC in synch...

NEVER again...

Chuck

David Gibbs wrote:

> The PC wasn't required to make it work... it was only used for
> configuration and diagnostics.
>
> At 06:56 PM 4/8/98 , Don wrote:
> >
> >Dave,
> >
> >Weren't they the ones that needed a PC attached to their DASD to make it
> >work????   THAT's what scared me!
> >
> >
> >--------------------------------------------------
> >
> >On Wed, 8 Apr 1998, David Gibbs wrote:
> >
> >> I can't speak to other OEM disk vendor's offerings... but I know for a fact
> >> that EMC's DASD offerings were completely sub-standard... and their support
> >> came in a poor second (ref my previous post about CISC->RISC upgrades).
> >>
> >> Luckily, they left the midrange market... although DecisionData's support
> >> wasn't much better.
> >>
> >> david
> >>
> >> At 11:58 PM 4/7/98 , Neil Palmer wrote:
> >> >I was called one evening by an IBM rep looking for assistance for a
> >> >customer who was down (around Xmas and IBM was short of resources).
> >> >Customer had a F60 with some EMC DASD.  One had failed.  After about 6
> >> >hours and several phone calls a service rep had finally shown up with 3
> >> >spare disks.  None of them worked, so he said they didn't have any more
> >> >in stock (this was Toronto - the biggest city in Canada, and they didn't
> >> >have any more disk in stock ??), and said he would try to get another
> >> >within a couple of days, AND LEFT THE CUSTOMER WITH A NON-USABLE SYSTEM
> >> >!!
> >> >
> >> >(I went in, removed the offending disk unit from the ASP - after doing a
> >> >re-IPL to DST again as he had left the system with the rest of the EMC
> >> >array not reporting in - and started them on a reload which was
> >> >completed by 9am the next morning).
> >> >
> >> >So, IMHO, the reason 3rd party disk is cheaper, is because IT'S NO
> >> >BLOODY GOOD !!!!
> >> >(And - also IMHO - neither is their support).
> >> >
> >> >You're taping the birth/first steps/first baseball game of your only
> >> >child with your Camcorder.
> >> >Do you buy Acme or Brand-X tape from some flea market stand because it's
> >> >a couple of dollars cheaper than a top quality name brand professional
> >> >grade tape ?
> >> >
> >> >NO !
> >> >
> >> >You don't risk something like that by using a cheap magnetic tape, just
> >> >like you don't risk your company's business by trying to save a few
> >> >bucks on magnetic disk.
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >OK - I'm done ranting now - say goodnight Gracie !
> >> >
> >> >:-)
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >Neil Palmer                                AS/400~~~~~
> >> >NxTrend Technology - Canada   ____________          ___  ~
> >> >Thornhill, Ontario,  Canada   |OOOOOOOOOO| ________  o|__||=
> >> >Phone: (905) 731-9000  x238   |__________|_|______|_|______)
> >> >Cell.: (416) 565-1682  x238    oo      oo   oo  oo   OOOo=o\
> >> >Fax:   (905) 731-9202       ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> >> >mailto:NPalmer@NxTrend.com    AS/400  The Ultimate Business Server
> >> >http://www.NxTrend.com
> >> >
> >> >> -----Original Message-----
> >> >> From:     David Gibbs [SMTP:david@midrange.com]
> >> >> Sent:     Tuesday, April 07, 1998 10:27 PM
> >> >> To:       MIDRANGE-L@midrange.com
> >> >> Subject:  RE: CISC to RISC conversion of data
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >> [
> >> >> << snip>>
>
> >> >>
> >> >> Caveat: We were running with OEM disks that were EXTREEEMLY unstable.
> >> >> In
> >> >> fact, two of the HDA assemblies was INCOMPATIBLE with the 620 (EMC
> >> >> should
> >> >> have known about that... we did ask them).
> >> >>
> >> >> I'm not blaming IBM for the problem... they sure went to bat for us
> >> >> (even
> >> >> after it was determined the problem was with OEM hardware) ... we had
> >> >> 2
> >> >> CE's onsite almost 24 hours/day for a week ... plus level 2 support on
> >> >> the
> >> >> horn at all hours.  I place the blame for the problem SQUARELY on
> >> >> EMC's
> >> >> shoulders... they had incompatible hardware and should have told us
> >> >> about it.
> >> >>
> >> >>
> >> >+---
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> >> >
> >> --
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> >> | WWW:      http://www.midrange.com/david
> >> |
> >> | ... A man can move mountains, a world can be turned,
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> >> | is transformed into shaking a hand.
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> --
> | Internet: david@midrange.com
> | WWW:      http://www.midrange.com/david
> |
> | ... A man can move mountains, a world can be turned,
> | and the greatest of distances easily spanned,
> | When the strength that's invested in making a fist
> | is transformed into shaking a hand.
> |
> |                       - DMRoth
> |
> | Fight Spam! Join CAUCE! == http://www.cauce.org/
>
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