A friend has asked for information and I don't want to steer him wrong,
can anybody help?

He can't seem to fit a Solaris install on the dinky HDD in his
SPARCstation 20.

Looking at the Sun docs, I see that it has a 50-pin, narrow internal disk.
He also has an external disk enclosure, the one with the same footprint and
color as the lunchbox-chassis machines.

Some SCSI FAQs seem to suggest that the SCSI standard is pretty open-ended, and
that newer disks generally tend to fallback onto older buses with no problems.

Would I be correct in advising him that any 50-pin SCSI disk will work in his
system?

Or, is there a disk size limitation inherent in the SPARCstation 20 hardware?

Thanks,

Lincoln

On Mon, 17 Nov 2003, Lincoln DeCoursey wrote:

> Looking at the Sun docs, I see that it has a 50-pin, narrow internal disk.

Nope; the SS20 use 80 pin SCA2 disks,

> He also has an external disk enclosure, the one with the same footprint and
> color as the lunchbox-chassis machines.
>
> Some SCSI FAQs seem to suggest that the SCSI standard is pretty open-ended, and
> that newer disks generally tend to fallback onto older buses with no problems.

Pretty much.

> Would I be correct in advising him that any 50-pin SCSI disk will work in his
> system?

No; any single ended SCS disk that uses an 80 pin SCA2 connector
should work OK.

> Or, is there a disk size limitation inherent in the SPARCstation 20 hardware?

No (that's an IDE problem), but you do have to watch the
heat displacement and power requirements.

HTH,

--
Rich Teer, SCNA, SCSA

President,
Rite Online Inc.

Voice: +1 (250) 979-1638
URL: http://www.rite-online.net

While forming in a straight line, decourl@cs.sunyit.edu (Lincoln
DeCoursey) wrote:

>A friend has asked for information and I don't want to steer him wrong,
>can anybody help?
>
>He can't seem to fit a Solaris install on the dinky HDD in his
>SPARCstation 20.

check

http://au.sunsolve.sun.com/handbook_.../DISK_TOC.html

to find out what disk he has.

>Looking at the Sun docs, I see that it has a 50-pin, narrow internal disk.

the sparcstation 20 (have one at my feet) use SCA connectors, those
have 80 pins and no seperate power connector.
The sparcstation 10 (have one of those as monitor stand) use 50pin
scsi connectors with a seperate power connector.

>He also has an external disk enclosure, the one with the same footprint and
>color as the lunchbox-chassis machines.

thats a 411 then, i think.

>Would I be correct in advising him that any 50-pin SCSI disk will work in his
>system?

I use two 411s, each containing a hard disk of about 4 GB, they work
without problems.
--
Claus Dragon <clauskick@mpsahotmail.com>
=(UDIC)=
d++ e++ T--
K1!2!3!456!7!S a24

Rich,

Thanks for the info. Once I added SCA to my search, I got more results.
Apparently one thing to watch out for is that the bay accepts drives which are
at most one inch tall.

Thanks again,

Lincoln

Rich Teer <rich.teer@rite-group.com> wrote in message news:<Pine.SOL.4.58.0311171942280.29152@zaphod>...

> Nope; the SS20 use 80 pin SCA2 disks,

decourl@cs.sunyit.edu (Lincoln DeCoursey) wrote in message news:<13678480.0311171849.52a7c026@posting.google. com>...
> A friend has asked for information and I don't want to steer him wrong,
> can anybody help?
>
> He can't seem to fit a Solaris install on the dinky HDD in his
> SPARCstation 20.
>
> Looking at the Sun docs, I see that it has a 50-pin, narrow internal disk.
> He also has an external disk enclosure, the one with the same footprint and
> color as the lunchbox-chassis machines.
>
<snip>

As others have said, you need 80 pin disks. If they are non-Sun,
Solaris is likely to complain they are not-labeled. Run format and
label the disk.

You need a carrier to hold the disk. The machine will take two disks,
but for reasons of heat I would limit that to one if I were you,
especially if there are multiple processors or fast processors. Heat
is the biggest bugbear of that machine. Some models have no fan close
to the disk. Some models have a very small fan. I would be tempted to
not bother having a CD and fit a larger fan.

Dr. David Kirkby.

Dr. David Kirkby wrote:
> decourl@cs.sunyit.edu (Lincoln DeCoursey) wrote in message news:<13678480.0311171849.52a7c026@posting.google. com>...
>
>>A friend has asked for information and I don't want to steer him wrong,
>>can anybody help?
>>
>>He can't seem to fit a Solaris install on the dinky HDD in his
>>SPARCstation 20.
>>
>>Looking at the Sun docs, I see that it has a 50-pin, narrow internal disk.
>>He also has an external disk enclosure, the one with the same footprint and
>>color as the lunchbox-chassis machines.
>>
>
> <snip>
>
> As others have said, you need 80 pin disks. If they are non-Sun,
> Solaris is likely to complain they are not-labeled. Run format and
> label the disk.
>
> You need a carrier to hold the disk. The machine will take two disks,
> but for reasons of heat I would limit that to one if I were you,
> especially if there are multiple processors or fast processors. Heat
> is the biggest bugbear of that machine. Some models have no fan close
> to the disk. Some models have a very small fan. I would be tempted to
> not bother having a CD and fit a larger fan.

Be warned that a small number of disks with the correct form-factor and
interface fail to cooperate with the firmware. One that bit me was the
IBM DMVS. If you can boot from another drive Solaris sees it without
incident.

see_my_signature_for_my_real_address@hotmail.com (Dr. David Kirkby) wrote in message news:<c99d2c79.0311191221.59dd6454@posting.google. com>...
> decourl@cs.sunyit.edu (Lincoln DeCoursey) wrote in message news:<13678480.0311171849.52a7c026@posting.google. com>...
> > A friend has asked for information and I don't want to steer him wrong,
> > can anybody help?
> >
> > He can't seem to fit a Solaris install on the dinky HDD in his
> > SPARCstation 20.
> >
> > Looking at the Sun docs, I see that it has a 50-pin, narrow internal disk.
> > He also has an external disk enclosure, the one with the same footprint and
> > color as the lunchbox-chassis machines.
> >
> <snip>
>
> As others have said, you need 80 pin disks. If they are non-Sun,
> Solaris is likely to complain they are not-labeled. Run format and
> label the disk.
>
> You need a carrier to hold the disk. The machine will take two disks,
> but for reasons of heat I would limit that to one if I were you,
> especially if there are multiple processors or fast processors. Heat
> is the biggest bugbear of that machine. Some models have no fan close
> to the disk. Some models have a very small fan. I would be tempted to
> not bother having a CD and fit a larger fan.
>
> Dr. David Kirkby.

Just want to add that the disk carrier/sled is not absolutely
necessary - I have an SS20 where I've just propped the disk up in the
case with several small rectangles of bubble wrap (much smaller in
surface area than the disk, to aid heat dissipation) to the height of
the connector. Not that there's a dearth of the sleds on eBay...

Michael