Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!mgnetp!ihnp4!zehntel!hplabs!sri-unix!rbbb@RICE.ARPA From: rbbb@RICE.ARPA Newsgroups: net.unix-wizards Subject: Re: UDA50/RA81 problems.... Message-ID: <12460@sri-arpa.UUCP> Date: Wed, 15-Aug-84 04:57:14 EDT Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12460 Posted: Wed Aug 15 04:57:14 1984 Date-Received: Fri, 17-Aug-84 01:24:17 EDT Lines: 72 From: David ChaseTo remove some of the mystery (not all): 1) UDA "microcode" bugs: Check your UDA boards - if they are M7161 and M7162, then they are OLD; if they are M7485 and M7486, then they are NEW. I don't think there are many old boards out there anymore, since DEC (at least in our part of the world) went around upgrading the disks on some sort of schedule. We may have unusually responsible field service out here, since everyone else tells horror stories. Whatever version of the driver we are running (for 4.2) doesn't knock the disk offline; uda.c claims it is revision 2.1 84/03/05, and has the unfortunate comment "TO DO: write the bad block forwarding code". 2) Information about these devices can be had from DEC; here are the order numbers and the address: EK-UDA50-UG-002 UDA50 User Guide (mostly hardware info) AA-L619A-TK MSCP Basic Disk Functions Manual AA-L620A-TK Storage System Diagnostic and Utilities Protocol AA-L621A-TK Storage System UNIBUS Port Description I have the first manual, but not the other three. The last three may be ordered as a kit, QP905-GZ UDA50 Programmer's Documentation Kit. The address is: Software Distribution Center Order Adminstration/Processing 20 Forbes Road (NR4) Northboro, MA 01532 3) Deuna information (lots of it) EK-DEUNA-UG-001 Deuna User's Guide. Why anyone would use a Deuna when Interlan boards are available is beyond me, since the Deuna draws about twice as much of everything from the Unibus, and prefers the official DEC H4000 transceiver. Xerox makes one about as big as my fist that seems to work with the Deuna and its diagnostics, except that it lacks the H4000's bogus "heartbeat" (the transceiver asserts "collision" in a special window to let the controller know that its collision detector is still working.) For high density applications ethernet, I recommend DEC's DELNI. It provides 8 connections for a single network tap. It can also operate without any ethernet connection (providing a cheap 8 node psuedo-ethernet) and (if not connected to ethernet) can be tiered to support up to 64 nodes. Cable length restrictions would probably make a 64 node DELNI network a little silly, but it is possible. We have 5 diskless Suns connected to a net through one of these, and have had no trouble from the DELNI. I also recommend this because we have had significant (more than once) problems with bad connections to the ethernet cable itself (sometimes shorting the cable), and people using the network get unhappy. 4) 750 hardware information (this might solve some of the WCS questions, though not how to deal with the DEC-supplied updates), EK-KA750-TD-002 (not necessarily the latest edition). This is NOT for the faint of heart. Now, does anyone out there know any good rumors about "fast fork" for 4.2+n? This uses copy-on-write shared memory; we once heard that this would require a microcode update and was thus delayed. I didn't understand that rumor, since it seems doable with software. Any comments? 5) There is a TM78 (the TU78/TA78 formatter) microcode upgrade floating around; it doesn't break the 4.2 driver (it changed EOT processing in some way, I think to report EOT before any io errors; this helps VMS backup not embarrass itself by running off the end of the tape). We also received this upgrade on some schedule, I think determined by our drive serial number. Hope this clears up some of the hardware confusion out there. drc