Newsgroups: comp.sys.hp
Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!sunee!maxwell!gordon
From: gordon@maxwell.waterloo.edu (Gordon R. Strachan)
Subject: Mixed 700/300 clusters and local disks
Message-ID: <1991May28.190640.5789@sunee.waterloo.edu>
Sender: news@sunee.waterloo.edu
Reply-To: gordon@maxwell.waterloo.edu (Gordon R. Strachan)
Organization: University of Waterloo, Waterloo Ont.
Date: Tue, 28 May 1991 19:06:40 GMT
Lines: 38

Hello, I was wondering if someone in the HP labs could take some time and
ponder a few bizarre questions.  We are attempting to purchase one of the
new 700 series workstations.  I say attempting because I am having a devil of
a time coming up with a configuration that will work with current cluster of
300's and won't force me to throw away all my HPIB peripherals.  I have been
working with a number of SE's for a while now, trying to come up with different
options but it always seems to come down to nothing really works.  Now I know
that the 700's have an EISA-HPIB interface card, but, as near as I can tell,
the 9144 cartridge tape drive is the only thing that is supported on it.  I
can not hook up my HPIB DAT tape to it which is really causing me a problem
since that is how HP is distributing software for the 700's.  Also I have
been told that I might, or might not be able to hook up our 795?B HPIB
disks to it.  I was told by one person that the entire CS80 driver was ported
to the 700's so you might be able to mount a CS80 drive but it had never
been tested and they wouldn't guarantee it would work.  Another person said
flat out that it wouldn't work since the HPIB card was not designed for it.
Personnally I think he meant that it wasn't an intended operation for it.

What I want to be able to do is to use the 700 as a cluster server for the
300's which will be diskless clients.  However, it looks like I will have to
keep at least the DAT tape on one of the 300's.  Now for backups thats not
a really big problem.  But, I don't see how I can do software installation 
and use it for recovery systems with it hanging off of one of the clients.

The biggest unknown are the disks.  I have been told that under v8.0, "local"
disks are supported on the diskless clients.  However, I have not been able
to ascertain exactly what the capabilities of these local disks are.  When
you mount a local disk on the clients who can see the disk, only the client
or can the entire cluster see it?  If it is exportable to other clients in
the cluster, can you have CDF's on it and are they handled in the expected
manner?  Finally, what about a mixed cluster.  Can the disks on the diskless
300's be seen from the 700?

Anyway I hope someone can answer these because I am just about at my wits end
this.  As near as I can tell, the 700's just don't want to talk to HPIB
devices, even with the HPIB card.

Gordon