[geeks] Opinions on the HP C3x00?

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Thu, 30 Mar 2006 nate at portents.com wrote:

> wasn't there a discussion on here at one point regarding compatability
> issues with the firmware used for drives pulled from large arrays?  Or
> was it simply a block size issue, solved by reformatting?  Or both?  I
> can't remember... anyone with any advice regarding EMC pulled drives?

I've reformatting EMC/Clariion drives using Solaris without any
problems.  However, I will absolutely recommed AGAINST using fx on IRIX
for this purpose.  Where the Solaris format command will babysit the
disk until the format completes, fx gets about 80 minutes into it and
says "There's -no way- that large disk could be taking that long to
format, so I'll just tell the disk to give up, and, no, you don't get to
veto this action. *raspberry*"

Much screaming and yelling took place that day.

For disks that have EMC firmware, you can generally get better
performance by loading Sun or IBM or HP (depending on who makes your
workstation/server) firmware, provided that $vendor also rebadges that
exact same disk.  The exact hardware/software setup you need to pull
that off escapes me, but I do know that you will not be able to use the
tools provided by Sun, IBM, or HP if the device's textual ID string
doesn't match what the tool expects.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke   )   "Let me hear you make decisions
Elgin, TX          (     without your television."
USA                 )        --Depeche Mode, "Stripped"