Greetings!

I have just recently received a new Sun hard drive (with a SPUD for
fitting inside my Sun Ultra 30 computer). I have a few concerns, and I do
not know enough about hardware to answer with certainty, so if anyone here
has any tips or suggestions, I would greatly appreciate your input!

It's a Fujitsu Model MAJ3182MC Ultra 160 SCSI/SCA2/LVD drive.

The drive in the Ultra 30 is a 4.2 GB (the new one is a 18.2 GB)
drive. It still works.

Here is what I'd like to do. I'd like to put this disk in, along
with the existing one, and it appears that two drives fit in my system, so
this should be fine.

However, the Solaris 2.8 which I currently have installed is not a
"full" installation. I installed it fully, but there was so little
remaining space, that I wound up removing major portions, all of the
windowing system and associated applications (Netscape), etc.

This isn't really a problem. I have two systems. My main system is
a Linux system, running Fedora Core 4. The Sun system was given to me in
2003, and it has two Network Interface Cards. So, it was rather ideal!
The Sun system is my "router". One of its NICs is attached to a DI604
(router/firewall) and the cable modem, and the other of its NICs is
attached to the single NIC of my Linux system. It is my mail host. I
have patched the sendmail that came with Solaris 2.8, to take care of
CERT's security flaws, etc., and I have placed fetchmail on it, which
checks (once every five minutes) to see whether me or my mother (who lives
with me) has Internet email, and if so, it transfers the email to the
local (Sun) disk and removes it from RoadRunner. (And, the Sun hard drive
is NFS mounted from the Linux system, so running mail on the Linux system
uses the mail file on the Sun hard drive.)

It really doesn't do much else, and it doesn't need to. But, it is
so wonderfully reliable and does what it does so very well! When I go to
a window logged on to it, just now, and type "uptime", it says up 280
days. And, this has been typical. I reboot it maybe once or twice a
year. And, I have never had a problem with it.

But, here is why I wanted a larger hard drive. My Linux system has
been unavailable twice now since 2003. One time I *really needed* to
access the web to check something regarding my work, and I couldn't. The
Sun has access to the Internet, and it was still getting email. It just
didn't have a web browser or anything like that on it; I didn't have
space for it, as I had removed it.

So, here is what I'd like to do. I'd like to handle this in two
phases, the hardware and the software portion. (I'm a LOT more
comfortable with the software portion!) :-)

Okay, the hardware uncertainties I have. I'm going to wind up
reinstalling Solaris 2.8, from scratch, and on this (larger) hard drive.
(I'll just use the 4.2 GB drive that is currently inside the system as
extra storage -- not that I really *need* much extra storage on the Sun
system.) But, I'll be able to install all of Solaris 2.8 again, and have
Netscape, all the windowing and extra utilities again.

Yet, I'll then be wanting to place my current sendmail (which has the
patches) over the one that will be installed from the Solaris 2.8
installation, and my configuration files, so that I can resume operation
of the system as quickly as possible, and have it operating pretty much
exactly as it is now.

(I haven't looked into it yet, but I expect I'll be able to figure
out how to get the sendmail it's running and my customized configuration
[mainly network and sendmail] files off my backup tape and into place.)

I don't yet know the SCSI information on the drive in there. (It may
be ID 0, and it probably has a terminator. I only know enough to be
dangerous, but I think SCSI has to have a terminator on the last SCSI
device.)

How should I set this (new/larger) drive? ID 0? ID 1? Does it
matter? (And, if, in the future, if I should lose the current 4.2 GB
drive, and that should be okay, because I'll want all of Solaris and my
*needed* storage to be on this newer/larger drive, would the situation of
I had been running with two hard disks, and the upper ID had a terminator,
and suddenly I lost one, would I still be able to keep operating
[presuming the one I lost was the smaller 4.2 GB drive, which I'm planning
on going first, as much as you can plan these things, it being much
older]?)

(Hmmm... that was a run-on question, but I hope you get the idea!)
:-)

Because (mainly) of my work situation, I have extremely little home
time right now. I'd like to do this in as little time as possible, yet
make sure I know what to do, and how to handle the possible "oops" things
that may come up.

I'll have to find out how to even determine what the SCSI IDs are,
set I would presume via jumpers, but I can't even see that, at the moment,
with the drive in this SPUD.

If anyone has any experience and/or knowledge about handling these
things, and has time to reply, I'd appreciate hearing from you.

Thank you!

Barry


--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

Barry L. Bond wrote:
> Greetings!
>
> I have just recently received a new Sun hard drive (with a SPUD for
> fitting inside my Sun Ultra 30 computer). I have a few concerns, and I do
> not know enough about hardware to answer with certainty, so if anyone here
> has any tips or suggestions, I would greatly appreciate your input!
>
> It's a Fujitsu Model MAJ3182MC Ultra 160 SCSI/SCA2/LVD drive.
>
> The drive in the Ultra 30 is a 4.2 GB (the new one is a 18.2 GB)
> drive. It still works.
>
> Here is what I'd like to do. I'd like to put this disk in, along
> with the existing one, and it appears that two drives fit in my system, so
> this should be fine.
>
> However, the Solaris 2.8 which I currently have installed is not a
> "full" installation. I installed it fully, but there was so little
> remaining space, that I wound up removing major portions, all of the
> windowing system and associated applications (Netscape), etc.
>
SNIP

The lower SCA drive bay is set to SCSI ID=0 and the upper drive bay is
set to ID=1, on the drive motherboard.

You can "dual boot" the system thru the OBP by typing "boot disk0" or
"boot disk1" at the "ok >" prompt. You can install do a full install
of Solaris 8 or Solaris 10 on your new 18GB disk, while retaining your
existing Solaris 8 on the 4GB disk, When you are satisfied with your
new installation, at that time, you can blow away your old Solaris 8
setup.

Hi Jim!

> The lower SCA drive bay is set to SCSI ID=0 and the upper drive bay is
> set to ID=1, on the drive motherboard.

Thank you VERY MUCH for your help here! Do I get to the jumpers by
unscrewing the metal plate which appears underneath the drive/on the SCUD?
And, what about the terminator, if you know and don't mind the question?

> You can "dual boot" the system thru the OBP by typing "boot disk0" or
> "boot disk1" at the "ok >" prompt. You can install do a full install
> of Solaris 8 or Solaris 10 on your new 18GB disk, while retaining your
> existing Solaris 8 on the 4GB disk, When you are satisfied with your
> new installation, at that time, you can blow away your old Solaris 8
> setup.

Oh, this is TERRIFIC news! Thank you so much! I didn't know that!

In my limited home time, right now, I can work on the 18GB disk, and
if I don't get it exactly the way I want it, I can resume the system as it
is now, until I have time to work on it some more! I can't tell you how
much I needed to hear (or read) that! :-)

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

Barry L. Bond <barry@barrycon.cfl.rr.com> wrote:
>> The lower SCA drive bay is set to SCSI ID=0 and the upper drive bay is
>> set to ID=1, on the drive motherboard.

> Thank you VERY MUCH for your help here! Do I get to the jumpers by
> unscrewing the metal plate which appears underneath the drive/on the SCUD?

Can I ask why you'd want to? No one should normally be touching jumpers
on an SCA drive. Just plug it in and let it be the ID for the slot it's
in.

> And, what about the terminator, if you know and don't mind the
> question?

You shouldn't need to touch any termination.

--
Darren Dunham ddunham@taos.com
Senior Technical Consultant TAOS http://www.taos.com/
Got some Dr Pepper? San Francisco, CA bay area
< This line left intentionally blank to confuse you. >

Barry L. Bond wrote:

> > The lower SCA drive bay is set to SCSI ID=0 and the upper drive bay is
> > set to ID=1, on the drive motherboard.
> Thank you VERY MUCH for your help here! Do I get to the jumpers by
> unscrewing the metal plate which appears underneath the drive/on the SCUD?
> And, what about the terminator, if you know and don't mind the question?

There are no jumpers on SCA drives. Well there CAN be, but generally
they arent used as the backplane location should determine SCSI target
ID.
Which is what "SCA drive bay is set to SCSI ID=0" means above...
The backplane should also handle termination issues.

> > You can "dual boot" the system thru the OBP by typing "boot disk0" or
> > "boot disk1" at the "ok >" prompt. You can install do a full install
> > of Solaris 8 or Solaris 10 on your new 18GB disk, while retaining your
> > existing Solaris 8 on the 4GB disk, When you are satisfied with your
> > new installation, at that time, you can blow away your old Solaris 8
> > setup.
> Oh, this is TERRIFIC news! Thank you so much! I didn't know that!
> In my limited home time, right now, I can work on the 18GB disk, and
> if I don't get it exactly the way I want it, I can resume the system as it
> is now, until I have time to work on it some more! I can't tell you how
> much I needed to hear (or read) that! :-)

Nows your big chance to upgrade to Solaris 10 too..Solaris 8 is from
Win98 time..
A full install w/o OEM would do nicely. Assuming you have adequate
RAM..
/usr/sbin/prtconf| grep Memory. Hopefully a GB

Hi Darren!

>Can I ask why you'd want to? No one should normally be touching jumpers
>on an SCA drive. Just plug it in and let it be the ID for the slot it's
>in.

Well, I thought I was supposed to! :-) (On the SCSI drives I know,
while jumpers often are set to what you need them to be set to, you also
sometimes need to change them!)

>You shouldn't need to touch any termination.

This sounds wonderful! Just plug it in!? I believe even I could
handle that! :-)

Thank you, Darren.

Barry

--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

Hi gerry!

>There are no jumpers on SCA drives. Well there CAN be, but generally
>they arent used as the backplane location should determine SCSI target
>ID.
>Which is what "SCA drive bay is set to SCSI ID=0" means above...
>The backplane should also handle termination issues.

Thank you very much! I obviously didn't know this. I'm showing my
lack of hardware knowledge! :-/

This is great news, to me! I really can't say I've had any hardware
issues, but hardware makes me a little uncomfortable!

>Nows your big chance to upgrade to Solaris 10 too..Solaris 8 is from
>Win98 time..
>A full install w/o OEM would do nicely. Assuming you have adequate
>RAM..
>/usr/sbin/prtconf| grep Memory. Hopefully a GB

I'm afraid I don't have any money right now, even a small amount, for
something that isn't critical, and this isn't as critical as a couple of
other computer issues I have. Hey! I have a version of Windows 98, too,
that I use VMware to boot, under Linux! :-D

My Sun Ultra 30 memory is: Memory size: 128 Megabytes

Oh well. :-)

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)

Barry L. Bond wrote:

> >Nows your big chance to upgrade to Solaris 10 too..Solaris 8 is from
> >Win98 time..
> >A full install w/o OEM would do nicely. Assuming you have adequate
> >RAM..
> >/usr/sbin/prtconf| grep Memory. Hopefully a GB
> I'm afraid I don't have any money right now, even a small amount, for
> something that isn't critical, and this isn't as critical as a couple of
> other computer issues I have. Hey! I have a version of Windows 98, too,
> that I use VMware to boot, under Linux! :-D
> My Sun Ultra 30 memory is: Memory size: 128 Megabytes
Yow. Thats low.
I see 1 GB of Ultra 30 RAM on eBay for 32$... : >
Best wait on that OS upgrade and stay with 8.

Hi,

Barry L. Bond wrote:
> Hi gerry!
>
>
>>There are no jumpers on SCA drives. Well there CAN be, but generally
>>they arent used as the backplane location should determine SCSI target
>>ID.
>>Which is what "SCA drive bay is set to SCSI ID=0" means above...
>>The backplane should also handle termination issues.
>
>
> Thank you very much! I obviously didn't know this. I'm showing my
> lack of hardware knowledge! :-/
>
> This is great news, to me! I really can't say I've had any hardware
> issues, but hardware makes me a little uncomfortable!
>
>
>>Nows your big chance to upgrade to Solaris 10 too..Solaris 8 is from
>>Win98 time..
>>A full install w/o OEM would do nicely. Assuming you have adequate
>>RAM..
>>/usr/sbin/prtconf| grep Memory. Hopefully a GB
>
>
> I'm afraid I don't have any money right now, even a small amount, for
> something that isn't critical, and this isn't as critical as a couple of
> other computer issues I have. Hey! I have a version of Windows 98, too,
> that I use VMware to boot, under Linux! :-D
>
> My Sun Ultra 30 memory is: Memory size: 128 Megabytes
>
> Oh well. :-)
>
> Barry
You can still install S10 on 128MB I think, unless you run it in GUI
mode if will lack memory.

If running like you intend to right now it should run fine and you can
then when money and time arrives just add it.

So try installing S10 first on your new 18GB drive, you will have a
great future of it in years to time with the U30, I did run my until
recently(18 months ago) for engineering work, no problem as a desktop.

Also when more money and time comes you can install a Beklin USB PCI
adapter and hook up cheap USB drives for addtional storage and/or backup
along with DVD burner.


/michael

Hi again, Gerry!

>I see 1 GB of Ultra 30 RAM on eBay for 32$... : >
>Best wait on that OS upgrade and stay with 8.

That's what I was thinking. :-)

I will be running it, basically as the router and mail host that it
currently is. But, I do want it to have the *ability* to run X things
(Netscape, or whatever web browser), so that, if my Linux system is
unavailable, I can still access the web for the most important things I do
via the web. (And, it was already getting email, anyway, so I still had
that.)

When time and money permits, it *is* tempting! :-)

Thank you so much for your kind thoughts!

Barry
--
Barry L. Bond | http://home.cfl.rr.com/os9barry/
Software Engineer, ITT Industries | (My personal home web page, last
bbondATcfl.rr.com | updated February 17, 2005)