[SunRescue] 670MP OS/hardware choices

[James Lockwood]

On Tue, 29 Feb 2000, Martin Wedel wrote:

>   The excitement mounts!  : )  . I have managed to procure a set of   
> SM52X procs (both cards, 4 procs) and a decent amount of ram (320mb)  
> for my 670MP. Also picked up some cheap full height 3.5 gb SCSI-2     

One teeny-tiny gotcha:

Are these a SM520 module and a SM521 module, or SM52X modules?

SS10's and SS20's can fit two SM52X's.  4/600 systems have opposing mbus
slots and require the SM520/SM521 pair of modules to fit them both (the
connector is on different sides).

You might just be able to get a SM52X into the first mbus slot, but
there's no way it will work in the second.  It's a double-wide card and it
would hang off of the end of the board.

P/n for the SM520 is 501-2444, SM521 is 501-2445.

> drives.  I should have all of the parts together within the next few  
> weeks. My question is this. Who on the list is actively running one of
> the MP systems, and more specifically, what OS are you running? Are   
> there any other recommended cards (ei scsi cards with higher          
> throughput) I should look for?       

If you have a 501-2055 CPU board then you have 10MB/sec fast/narrow SCSI
already.  Otherwise you have 5MB/sec.  If you're running several SCSI
disks then an extra SCSI card will help.

Solaris 2.x is the most proven OS for SMP 4/600 configurations.  If you
aren't adverse to doing a little hacking with adb you can even run
current releases (Solaris 7 tested but 8 should work as well).

-James