RE: Since when is adding DASD so difficult?

Pam,

Here are some things I would suggest checking:

- The #5065 Storage/PCI Expansion Tower was announced with V4R4 so I
assume that it is still supported by that version.  It is an SPD
optical-attach tower supporting PCI disk and cards.  It should support
the current Ultra2 SCSI disks.  IBM has offered a field conversion (at
charge) of this tower to one of the newer HSL-attached #5074 or #5079
I/O Towers so it would not need to be discarded if you upgraded entirely
to 8xx generation hardware.

I would see if it is still available.  According to IBM's Sales Manual,
it has not yet been withdrawn, but that isn't always a reliable source.

I'm not sure why you would need to discard it when you finally upgrade
you OS.  The 720 generation hardware should be well supported for a
while.

It's worth exploring.  There may well be some gotcha that I haven't
noticed.  Getting accurate information on a configuration is difficult.
Sometimes the only way to find out if something is available is to have
a vendor configure it as an official IBM MES and make sure the system
doesn't choke on it.

Regards,
Andy Nolen-Parkhouse

> Subject: Since when is adding DASD so difficult?
>
> I could use some advice on the following conundrum:
>
> We have a Model 720 on V4R4. All the bays in both the system unit and
the
> expansion unit are filled with 8 GB drives, giving us a total capacity
of
> about 300 GB. We need to add about 100 GB. I had thought the obvious
> solution
> would be to add another expansion unit and add in some 17 GB drives.
> Simple,
> right?
>
> I am told that the current technology for expansion, a PCI tower,
requires
> V4R5.
> The next option is swapping 8 GB for 17 GB drives in place. This means
a
> lot
> of planning to cover the risks.
> Another possibility would be to get a used SPD tower, which may need
to be
> discarded when we finally do upgrade our OS.
>
> What's your feeling on these options? Do you have any other
suggestions?
>
> Pam Phillips