Re: Ultra 10 max HDD capacity?
I have a 120 GB drive in my U10.
I have seen reports from people who have larger drives (IOW, drives
larger than the "normal" 128 GB limit that is seen on older x86
hardware) in their U10s and/or U5s. I've always been too lazy to yank
the 200 GB out of my SFF and try it in my U10. The SFF is more a pain
to work on than the U10.
I believe that my 120 GB drive supports udma2 or udma3, at least, but
in practice it runs at mdma2. Judging from comments I've read since I
acquired my U10 a year ago, I believe that the lack of DMA is due to
either:
1. DMA is not supported by the IDE hardware that Sun provides
-- or --
2. DMA is supported by the IDE hardware, but it is so buggy/misfeatured
that the kernel does not support it in either the 2.4 or 2.6 versions.
This may mean that DMA is unsupportable or it may mean that no one with
appropriate knowledge can dedicate the time to make it work.
Not having DMA seems to mean that you will only get about 13-15 MB/s
(via hdparm) when using the IDE hardware provided with the U10. This is
OK for me, since this is a server and I'm only running 100 mbit/s
ethernet to it. The ethernet will saturate before the drive will run
out of bandwidth.
The usual suggestions for improving the low data rate are:
1. Buy SCSI hardware. This is expensive, particularly for medium-sized
or large drives.
2. Buy an IDE or SATA PCI card and an appropriate drive.
These suggestions are complicated by the fact that not all
SCSI/IDE/SATA PCI cards will work on Sun hardware. Sun does have a
compatibility list on their website, but it can be hard to know who
made the chips you are getting when purchasing cheap/no-name PCI cards.
I have seen someone suggest that hardware that works with Apple PPC
hardware is also likely to work with Sun hardware.
-- darin
--- Josip Rodin <joy@srce.hr> wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 28, 2006 at 06:18:16AM -0800, Bruce Harrison wrote:
> > Is this the same for an Ultra 5 Sparcstation?
> > Also, any experience with a 5400 RPM drive vs. 7200
> > drive in the same unit? My 9 GB is getting a little
> > tight, but all I have on my "parts shelf" is a 40 GB
> > 5400 drive. I know a 7200 RPM drive is the better
> > choice, but before I spend the time installing the
> > 5400 RPM drive I though I'd check here for any
> > experiences.
>
> You're unlikely to have problems with the 40 GB drive, I have a 60 GB
> IBM IC35L060AVV207-0 in an Ultra 5 and it's working just fine.
>
> Then again, hdparm -i reports:
>
> DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 *mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5
>
> Meaning this "mdma2" is the selected mode - not sure what that means.
>
> However, it reports the same for both the original 20 GB disk and the
> newer
> 60 GB disk, so it's unlikely to be a major problem.
>
> --
> 2. That which causes joy or happiness.
>
>
> --
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>
darin_strait@yahoo.com
Database Development and Administration
"Change is hardest for those caught by surprise.", Thomas Friedman
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