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From: robin@ecst.csuchico.edu (Robin Goldstone)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.dec,comp.unix.ultrix
Subject: Re-post: help wanted selecting Decstation
Message-ID: <1990Oct29.224303.25334@ecst.csuchico.edu>
Date: 29 Oct 90 22:43:03 GMT
Sender: news@ecst.csuchico.edu (USENET)
Organization: California State University, Chico
Lines: 39

(Sorry if you have seen this before, but there is some question as to
 wheter or not my original message ever made it off-site...)

We want to purchase a unix machine to do Domain Name Service for our
campus.  I am not a unix person, but I will be supporting this machine
with help from our computer science department.  We are looking at 
getting a DECstation since DEC's pricing is good and we get the software
free though the University Consortium.

I would like some advice about which model DECstation to go with.  The
machine will not support any interactive users (except for sys. admin.).
All it will do is:
1) provide primary name service (Internet) for our campus
2) route mail: a large number of users will have aliases set up on
this machine to route incoming mail to their "real" mail home.  No one will
actually read their mail on this system.  There will be upwards of
1000 aliases on this machine, but since the vast majority of e-mail
is on-campus only, the actual volume of mail being routed through this
machine will be minimal - maybe 50-100 mail messages a day.
3) finger server: maintain a large list of user info that other systems
can finger.

Thats about it! No application software, no programming...  DEC recommended
a DECsystem 3100 w/ 8mb memory, 332mb disk, tk50 tape drive.  The cost is
a little more than we were hoping to spend.  I have three questions:

1) Would a DECstation 2100 have enough muscle to perform the above tasks?
2) Is 8MB enough memory?
3) Can we get away with a smaller disk?  I know it is possible to save money
by buying a non-DEC SCSI disk, but I have heard you have to do some magic
to use a SCSI disk as your boot disk, and given my limited (none) ultrix
expertise, I don't think this would be smart.

Please reply directly to me if possible and thanks in advance for any
help you can offer.

Robin Goldstone, Systems Software Specialist
California State University, Chico Computing Services
robin@csuchico.edu