On Wed, 10 May 2000, Rob Windsor wrote:
Has anyone successfully mixed FC8s and FC9s on the same FCAL loop?
We currently have four FC8s connected to our F740, one FC8 not connected (no drives in it), and two FC9s just arrived (we ordered FC8s, but tech said that they'll co-exist just fine).
The instructions indicate that when you connect one FC9 to an existing loop containing FC8s, you have to make it ID-0. What about the second one? (I'm assuming that we just make it ID-1, but the documentation isn't clear.)
On one of my F740's I have 3 FC8 shelves and a single FC9 shelf. The 3 FC8's are the original shelves and the FC9 was added later. They are all on a single FCAL loop. Since the 3 FC8's were there first, they are number 0,1,2 and the FC9 was added as id 3. I do not recall seeing anything in the instructions about making the FC9 be id 0. When I first hooked up the shelf I had a problem that turned out to be a loose cable but as a result I was on the phone to tech support for almost an hour. During that phone call I described in exact detail what I was doing and they never told me to make the FC9 be id 0. This configuration has been up and running in a production environment for over 4 months with no problems. If it makes any difference, all of the drives that are currently in the filer are 18GB drives.
I'll probably just price what NetApp would charge to just upgrade your existing FC8s to FC9s. I'd rather have a homogeneous set of shelves, honestly.
I am also considering upgrading the FC8's to FC9's, not so much to be homogeneous but to be able to upgrade all the disks to 36GB.
Also, I heard a nasty rumor that the F740 actually maxes out at 7 trays worth of (18Gig) disks. Is this true or can we order our 8th tray without worries?
Are you saying "maxes out" in that it will not allow you to hook up the last shelf or that it runs out of horsepower?