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From: curt@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Curt Welch)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sequent
Subject: Re: ever add an eagle to a Symmetry?
Message-ID: <5032@oasys.dt.navy.mil>
Date: 21 Dec 90 15:00:12 GMT
References: <48@sierra.STANFORD.EDU>
Reply-To: curt@oasys.dt.navy.mil (Curt Welch)
Organization: David Taylor Research Center, Bethesda, MD
Lines: 57

In article <48@sierra.STANFORD.EDU> bryan@sierra.STANFORD.EDU (bryan) writes:
>We have some big, old, heavy Fujitsu Eagles (300 MB, wow!) that we'd
>like to add to our Symmetry.  The Symmetry already has 2 Eagles on it.
>Has anybody ever done this without Sequent's help?  How hard is it?

I've done it.  It's not too hard.

We chose the Sequent because it supports Eagle drives.  We have 12 of
those old drives on our 5 Vax systems.  We plan on moving them all to
the Sequent.  Despite their size, they're the best drives we've got.  In
the 5 years I've been here, not one of them has ever had a hardware
problem.  Everything else here has been replace or rebuilt a few times.

We have an S27.  Two of the Eagles were connected by Sequent when the
system was installed this summer.  I connected two more later without
Sequent's help.

The drives are Fujitsu M2351A.  On the Sequent, they are 396 Megabytes
formated (not just 300).

To install them, I had to change some jumpers on one of the cards
inside the drive, set the drive number switches (near where the A and B
cables attach to the drive), and cable it to the Sequent dual-channel
controller.  Once connected, I ran the Sequent format program, and then
booted Dynix.

I got the jumper information from a Sequent document on installing their
396-Mbyte drive. (Which is the eagle).  In case you didn't know, Sequent
used to sell the Eagles, which is why this all works.  The Sequent tech
left me the 4 pages or so from the manual with the important information.
I could send this to you if you can't get it from Sequent.

The biggest problem I had was a lack of a jumper.  The new jumper
configuration required one more jumper.  I had to steal it from an
Eagle dual-channel board that we didn't need.

On the Vax, the SMD drives use a daisy-chained A cable (the wider
one).  On the Sequent, both the A and B cable must run to the controller
for each drive.  This means that you also need a terminator card for
each drive.

I think that there are some limitations on connecting different types of
drives to the same controller on the Sequent.  If you plan to do this, you
should check with Sequent first.  I think that all drives on one "side"
of a DCC must be the same type.

Some older Sequents seem to use a Multibus disk controller.  Be ware that
the jumper settings on the drive are different for this type of controller.

Good luck,

Curt Welch
curt@oasys.dt.navy.mil
Code 3531
David Taylor Research Center (A Navy Lab)
Bethesda, MD
(301) 227-1428