Re: SCO OpenServer on Serial ATA hard drives

On Thu, Apr 13, 2006 at 02:15:42PM -0400, Yves Leclerc wrote:
Has anyone every worked on installing the current release of SCO OpenServer
6.0.0 on servers with Serial ATA hard drives? What would be causes that
woould make this type of server to not be reliable?

I usually recommend SCSI based servers but several of my clients are wondering
about the low cost servers that are coming out on the market?

--
---

Y.


There are a variety of new motherboards that support the AHCI
(Advanced Host Contoller Interface) specification. These can run
Serial ATA drives with Native Command Queuing.

SCO has done great work with the AHCI driver in OpenServer 6.
We worked with them to get the driver to work with some quirky DVD
devices, and to include tape support.

In fact, we've just shipped a special system out to Las Vegas for
the DTR Business Systems conference next week. It contains a Mini-Itx
Intel 915 chipset motherboard with AHCI support (ICH6R controller hub).

ALL of the internal storage devices are Serial ATA.
---------------------------------------------------
- Hitachi T7K250 hard drive
- Plextor PX-755SA DVD writer
- Iomega REV
- Sony SDX-570V AIT-2 Turbo tape drive

The box screams, and is only 9"x8"x13" in size.

Those attending the conference are welcome to come by and see the box.

You need a motherboard with AHCI support for non-RAID Serial ATA
(most newer Intel chipsets support it). Motherboards that just emulate
Parallel ATA when using Serial ATA devices probably won't work.



I don't have any personal experience with Serial ATA RAID, just single
drives.

The drives are like any others. If they come with one year warranties
you get what you pay for. If they have 3 or 5 year warranties, the
manufacturer probably thinks they'll last a while.

You can't get 15k drives, and you may not scale quite as well for lots
of users, but for competitive small boxes, OpenServer 6 and Serial ATA
do very well. SCO is ahead of the curve on Serial ATA and
Serial-Attached-SCSI support.


--
Tom
D. Thomas Podnar
Microlite Corporation
2315 Mill Street
Aliquippa PA USA 15001-2228
724-375-6711
888-257-3343 Sales
Developers of Microlite BackupEDGE
.

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