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This is a shot in the dark... I need some help with an Apple Network
Server 700/150 running AIX. It has a Dac960 RAID card installed and I
inadvertantly killed the array... anyone have experience with these
old beasties??

In article <1147583800.527023.266550@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups .com>, sundowner225@gmail.com <sundowner225@gmail.com> wrote:
> This is a shot in the dark... I need some help with an Apple Network
> Server 700/150 running AIX. It has a Dac960 RAID card installed and I
> inadvertantly killed the array... anyone have experience with these
> old beasties??

I've used AIX for 10 years now, and used Macs for 18 years... but I've
never personally been lucky enough to administer an ANS server.

It's probably easier to ask your specific question and then see if
anyone responds... and you probably also want to crosspost to one of the
Mac newsgroups, too.

With that said, if your question is basically how to re-set up the
array, there's a nice pile of ANS-specific docs at:

http://www.erik.co.uk/ans/

The RAID setup document is third link from the top of the Resources
section.

http://www.erik.co.uk/ans/Using_PCI_RAID_Card.pdf

It doesn't just talk about installation and initial configuration, but
also talks about rebuilding the array, replacing disks, doing parity
checks, etc.

To do the card setup and administration, you'll need a special floppy
disk. Hopefully, you've got that, or can find a disk image.

-Dan

In article <slrne6dg4m.3uh.usenet@zappy.catbert.org>, Dan Foster <usenet@evilphb.org> wrote:
>
> To do the card setup and administration, you'll need a special floppy
> disk. Hopefully, you've got that, or can find a disk image.

Heh... it's there, too:

http://www.erik.co.uk/ans/DiagnosticUtility1.1.sit.bin

How to use it is referenced in the PDF file in the other post.

-Dan

Thanks Dan..

Actually, I am a bit of the neophyte as far as AIX AND Macs go... I am
a linux guy by trade but work in a lab at IBM with some old AIX guys,
and when I got the chance to get an AIX machine for cheap (read free) I
couldnt pass it up. I know its not anywhere near the newer version
(running Apples AIX version 4.1.4) but its a start. I just got the
thing hooked up today.

As for my specific questions...

This is a rather old machine, that came with a Dac960 RAID card and 3
9GB disks in a RAID 5 (I believe) but I had no software other than the
Apple AIX install CD and the guy I got it from said it was already
installed...

Much google fun ensues and while trying to figure out why I could not
boot the Install CD (dont ask why) I removed the hard disks to make
sure the CDrom was actually working. Unfortunately, this RAID card is
old enough to not appreciate the removal of disks, so when I powered it
back up, all the disks had been offlined. The stuff I work with at IBM
will allow me to set the drives back online via BIOS, but since ths is
all working in OpenFirmware (Yet another layer of clue I need to dive
into), I have been groping in the dark all day.

Thanks for the link to the Utilities disk. I have been searching for
about 3 hours now for that disk, and there it was on the same site I
have gotten so much info from already. I didn't notice a link
previously, so thanks for pointing me to the disk.

Now I just need to figure out how to convert that to a usable floppy
without a working Mac.

I got 5 older Macs from the guy, but every one but the ANS has a weird
video out (I think its DVI) and I have no matching monitor, so I have
to either figure out how to make the disk in Windows or Linux, or I
have to wait till monday to talk to the guy at work who is a real Mac
geek and see if I can get him to make it for me.

I really need to just go ahead and buy that MacBook Pro I have been
oogling for the last month or so...

Cheers
Jeff

In article <1147587462.224462.223650@i40g2000cwc.googlegroups .com>, sundowner225@gmail.com <sundowner225@gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Thanks for the link to the Utilities disk. I have been searching for
> about 3 hours now for that disk, and there it was on the same site I
> have gotten so much info from already. I didn't notice a link
> previously, so thanks for pointing me to the disk.
>
> Now I just need to figure out how to convert that to a usable floppy
> without a working Mac.

You could run something like Basilisk II under either Windows or Linux,
but it's a bit of a PITA with the initial setup. Works, though. And also
supports networking *and* floppy drive read/writes, too.

Or alternatively, run HFV Explorer on Windows or maybe Stuffit which I
seem to vaguely recall has some kind of disk image or file conversion
support.

What you have going for you is that the ANS has a SuperDrive which means
it can read the MFM-encoded 1.44 MB floppies common to PCs.

So it's a matter of finding an app to write out a disk image to a
floppy. If it was a .img file, you could use 'dd'. But since this is
binhex'ed, this becomes tricky.

Stuffit and/or HFV Explorer should be able to get the job done, I *think*?
I don't really use Windows much. Usually Linux, AIX, and Solaris
these days.

If it was me, on my Linux box, I'd be running Basilisk II with MacOS
System 7.6.1 and downloading the disk image directly to the emulated Mac
with Netscape 4.08 or something, then unbinhex'ing on the Mac, then
write the resultant image to floppy with disk copy. Then eject disk in
Finder, pop out floppy (physically), and take it to the ANS.

> I got 5 older Macs from the guy, but every one but the ANS has a weird
> video out (I think its DVI) and I have no matching monitor, so I have

What models are these Macs? I can tell you exactly what you'd need.

> to either figure out how to make the disk in Windows or Linux, or I
> have to wait till monday to talk to the guy at work who is a real Mac
> geek and see if I can get him to make it for me.

That's an option, too.

> I really need to just go ahead and buy that MacBook Pro I have been
> oogling for the last month or so...



Apple's supposed to release a new one on Tuesday, I think. Looks sharp.

-Dan

Meh... no joy. Wrong disk.... Although I DO need that diags disk
also... but there is a seperate disk for configuring and running diags
on the PCI Dac960 card... THAT is the one I can not find now... the
best I have done after a nights worth of searching is an archived
discussion on a defunct ANS mailing list where the exact disk I am
looking for was being hosted for download... but of course that site no
longer exists..

Those archives were from 2002... So, I emailed a couple of the
addresses from that, and maybe one of those will be a hit. After I am
done with all this, I am going to mirror this stuff myself.

Jeff