RE: Help with config -- MIDRANGE-L

Tom,

As Mr. Goins has already  pointed out, an official 'upgrade' from a 720
to an 820 will gut the 720 chassis of processor and memory and leave it
in place as a 'migration tower' with all of its disk, cards, expansion
towers (if any) etc.  So you may need to be privy to 'the plan' in order
to know whether this particular upgrade is appropriate.

You say that your customer has two modems.  The information you supplied
indicates space for 21 modems as well as one internal modem.  Cables are
supplied for 16 V.24 and 4 bisynchronous lines.  This doesn't jive.
Each #4745 on the new machine will handle two lines.  The #9771 will
support one line as will as providing one internal V.90 modem for
asynchronous PPP communications.  If they truly need twenty synchronous
and bisynchronous lines and if they want to move them to the new
platform, then they are all set.  If some of those lines are to be
asynchronous, then they may be better served with a #4761 which would
provide 8 internal modems in one PCI slot.  If they are going with a
migration tower, why are they putting all of the hardware on the new
machine?  Given the speed of a communications line, I'm not sure that I
see a downside in leaving their existing communications cards in place.
Unlike a high-speed tape drive or disk drives, I'm not sure that a
communications line will stress the high-speed link between the 820 and
the migration tower.

On the new machine, your customer has the cards (#2749) to support two
external tape drives.  These would be appropriate for the 3570 and the
9348.  The other two drives are 2.5 GB QIC (#6381) and 1.2 GB QIC
(#9343).  Neither of these are supported for migration to the 820
chassis.  If they need to support these formats on their new machine,
then they can either leave them in a migration tower or order feature
#4582 (4 GB QIC) for the 820.  The 4 GB QIC should be read/write
compatible with tapes created on the other two drives.  There are three
cards on the 720 to support external media.  All three of them could
support the two external tapes (2 #2729 (PCI) and 1 #2621 (SPD)).  I
assume that one of these is not being used or is controlling something
which is not listed.

So, some additional questions:  What's the plan?  Are they going the
migration tower route or do they want entirely new hardware?  Do they
have two or twenty communications lines?  If they are utilizing a
migration tower, why are they getting all new communications hardware?
This is being very generous with PCI slots and could force an expansion
chassis depending on other aspects of the configuration.  If they are
not utilizing a migration tower, then they need a new QIC tape drive.
Are there quantities omitted on the listing of 720 features or is each a
quantity of one?

Please note that I have not verified that the cables currently attaching
the 3570 and 9348 external tape drives are compatible with the #2729
cards.  It needs to be looked at.  These cables are features of the tape
drives, not the 720/820, so they will not be listed on your
configuration.  It may depend on whether they are attached to the PCI or
the SPD cards on the 720.

Regards,
Andy Nolen-Parkhouse

> One of our customers has a 720 v4r5, and he's considering upgrading to
an
> 820 v5r1.  The customer has 2 modems, and 4 tape drives. I was handed
a
> printout of some of the hardware and asked which are the modem-related
> stuff, and which are tape-related.  I don't know but know for sure
that
> someone on this list does.
>
> The 4 tape drives are:
> TAP01   - 6381-001
> TAP02  - 9348-002
> TAP03   - 9343-002
> TAP04   - 3570-C01
>
> I forget what the modem model- types are, but nothing fancy.
>
> Here's some of what they handed me on the printouts:
>
> Stuff on the current 720:
> Product         Description
> 0348            V.24/EIA232 20-FT PCI CABLE
> 0353            V.35 20-FT PCI CABLE
> 2612            EIA 232/V.24 ONE-LINE ADPT
> 2613            V.35 ONE-LINE ADAPTER
> 2621            REMOVABLE MEDIA DEVICE ATTCH
> 2623            SIX LINE COMM CONTROLLER
> 2729            PCI MAGNETIC MEDIA CTLR
> 2729            PCI MAGNETIC MEDIA CTLR
> 2745            PCI TWO-LINE WAN IOA
> 9020            V.35 CABLE 20 FT
> 9023            V.24 CABLE 20 FT ENHANCED
>
> Stuff proposed for the 820:
> Product         Description                             Qty
> 0348            V.24/EIA232 20-FT PCI CABLE             16
> 0353            V.35 20-FT PCI CABLE                    4
> 2749            PCI ULTRA MAG MEDIA CTLR                2
> 2843            PCI IOP                                 3
> 4745            PCI WAN IOA                             10
> 9691            BASE BUS ADAPTER                        1
> 9771            BASE PCI 2-LINE WAN W/MODEM     1
>
>
> My question: what's needed on the 820 list to be sure that the
customer is
> able to use all of their tape drives and modems?  What's missing from
it?
>
> Tom Hightower