🚀 go-pugleaf

george@scout.sfasu.edu wrote:
: > 
: > I would like to add that we have used the Storagework product for over a 
: > year now and have not had one single problem with it.  We have use Dec 
: > equipment for years and have always found the equipment very reliable and
: > Dec has always notified us of any problem found in their equipment or
: > operating systems and have fixed the problems as quickly as possible. (
: > of course we also carry the products under maintenance agreements).  
: > 
: > I know of numerous other companies that we have had dealings with that 
: > we have not gotten this kind of support.
: > 
: > charlie
: > 

: I must also say we have been running StorageWorks for approximately 3 months
: with no problems.  We even reconfigured drives as "nontransportable" and moved
: many drives around... just "quiesce" the bus and pull the drive... didn't blow
: nary a diode.  A great system (HSJ-42 and 12 RZ28s), and VERY fast.

: George

At Merrill Corporation, we were one of pre-release sites for StorageWorks 
and even during it's pre-production phase it was very reliable.  We have 
been using StorageWorks (redundant HSJ40s serving between 30-36 disks, 
shadowed) for over one year.  We have had one RZ26 fail "invisibly" ("Oh 
look, a yellow light -- down to a single member shadow set..."), upgraded 
firmware on-the-fly, swapped RZ26s for RZ28s on a live system and 
everything worked "as documented".  We have had NO loss of disk resources 
for 14 months!

As a user of StorageWorks, I really don't care about a diode popping if a
drive is repeatedly inserted and removed -- StorageWorks was never, to my 
knowledge and experience, marketed that way.  This isn't traditional
removable mass storage.  Bricks can be removed and inserted for the
occasional spindle swap that upgrades or failures require.  (The
connectors on those RZ disks are only certified for 300 insert/removals,
anyway...)

DEC did a good thing with StorageWorks, and as a system manager that 
spent all day New Years Day moving his system disk to a 
StorageWorks-served RZ26, I'm not losing any sleep over those little 
diodes.

Carl Follstad
Merrill Corporation - St. Paul, Minnesota

	ALL OPINIONS EXPRESSED ARE MY OWN, NOT MY EMPLOYER'S