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

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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