VMS/VAX/Alpha questions...

From: healyzh_at_aracnet.com <(healyzh_at_aracnet.com)>
Date: Thu Oct 12 16:40:37 2000

> Lemme simplify: Does a VAX or older Alpha box *have* to have DEC drives
> installed in them for OpenVMS to work or for the boxes to actually
> recognize the drive (a la Compaq, Apple & the like) or can I slap in an IBM
> 2 gigger and have it work?

Ah, now there is a question we can work with :^) Let's see.... In the past
I've used non-DEC drives on my one AlphaStation 200 4/233 running OpenVMS,
the other is still using a non-DEC drive.

Currently the *only* non-DEC drive in my cluster (except those that came in
storageworks cannisters) is in a VAXstation 4000/VLC, and I've got major
problems with it at the moment as a bunch of the files have bad blocks :^(

> [ The largest drive I can find for sale (reasonably) from DEC is a 426Meg,
> and I was hoping for bigger, but if a 2Gig IBM (read: non-DEC) drive won't
> be recognized, it's not going to do me a hill of beans worth of good... ]
>
> Does DEC say: "You'll run that RZ25 & *Be Happy About It*", or can I run
> non-DEC rommed hard drives just fine?
>
> RZ or not RZ, *that* is the question. ;-)

The answer, is hopelessly vague. It depends. It might work, it might not
work. OpenVMS and the hardware are only tested with specific drives, as a
result the drives may or may not work. The good news is that OpenVMS V7.2
is a lot less touchy about this than say VAX/VMS V5.5.

So, you see the correct answer is, try it and find out. Which unfortunatly
isn't the one you want trust me I understand as I've looked into upgrading
my server to a U2W SCSI controller and Ultra160 drives. As a hobbyist I'm
not sure I want to risk buying drives that might not work.

                        Zane
Received on Thu Oct 12 2000 - 16:40:37 BST