Re: Extra Disk 170 -- MIDRANGE-L

Respectfully I've done a bunch of these and they are very straighforward. The top and front covers get replaced (OK the back too but who uses those?). You take off the right side cover and the new right side just slides together with the CEC side. Then a strap gets screwed down the back to hold them together and the new top pops on (a few more screws). There is one ribbon cable that connects the two sides together and a SCSI ribbon cable goes from the new 6 drive expansion to the disk controller in the CEC. Then the right side cover removed from the original system goes onto the new expansion unit. You *WILL want a 5.5mm socket to do this upgrade, but it's the only tool you'll need. This is a FC 7101 or 7102 expansion unit.

You MUST have a RAID controller to connect this expansion because the base controller will only control 4 drives. FC 2740, 2741, 2748 or 2726 will all work in there.

- Larry

Al Barsa wrote:

Correct,  it's a nontrivial upgrade, expect a lot of labor and materials
(new covers, etc.).

Al

Al Barsa, Jr.
Barsa Consulting Group, LLC

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't there an expansion unit available from
IBM (or reseller) that will allow you to expand a  170 from the standard
4 drives to 10 and do so in a supported fashion?


-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Larry Bolhuis
Sent: Wednesday, April 06, 2005 6:45 PM
To: Midrange Systems Technical Discussion
Subject: Re: Extra Disk 170


I speak as somewhat of an authority on what a 170 will accept as disks,
check out http://www.frankenseries.com/gallery-frankentower.html for
pictures!

The 170 will work with 2, 4, 8, and 17 GB disks. Essentially any of the
double byte (68 pin) style of drives (7200 RPM)  as well as the 10K RPM
8 and 17GB units. Heck I just bet it would work with the 10K RPM 35GB
Units but that would be unsupported now wouldn't it?? Depending on how
far back your OS is you MIGHT run into a problem with the 17GB units but

I doubt it.

As to how to use them, if you have only two you likely have them running

naked (i.e. no disk protection).  I would strongly recommend you add a
pair of 8GB units and then crank up mirroring. This would move you from
8 GB unprotected to 12 GB mirrored and doesn't care about which
controller you have.  Of course you can (at your own risk and peril) run

the new 8GB units unprotected too and in that case end up with 24 GB of
disk.

You don't say which disk controller you have but if you have only two
drives I suspect strongly that you have only the base controller, not
the 2740, 41, 26 or 48 any of which would get you RAID capability.  In
that case you'd need to add only 4GB disks anyway to get to the minimum
RAID set size of 4 units.

Hope this helps!

 - Larry (aka DrFranken)

You can

Raul A. Jager W. wrote:

We have a 170 with 2 6807 disks (4.19 GB) and we want to add 2 6817
disks (8 GB), is it possible to mix?
if not, we can replace the disks, but I will like to know if the 170
will recognize the 6817 disk?

TIA
Raul

Larry Bolhuis IBM eServer Certified Systems Expert: Vice President iSeries Technical Solutions V5R3 Arbor Solutions, Inc. iSeries LPAR Technical Solutions V5R3 1345 Monroe NW Suite 259 iSeries Linux Technical Solutions V5R3 Grand Rapids, MI 49505 iSeries Windows Integration Technical Solutions V5R3 IBM eServer Certified Systems Specialist (616) 451-2500 iSeries System Administrator for OS/400 V5R3 (616) 451-2571 - Fax AS/400 RPG IV Developer (616) 260-4746 - Cell iSeries System Command Operations V5R2

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