New drives

[michael sweet]

> We have 4D/25's each with the SGI 670 MB disk, and want to add more
> disk capacity.  Ideally we would like to get something that will just
> plug right in, but doubt that it will be that simple...

> Anyway, can someone with experience give us recommendations?  We will
> consider both SGI and 3rd-party drives.  Ease of installation and use
> is a major factor -- the machines are run and maintained by a bunch of
> theorists who don't have the expertise to diddle around with systems
> programming and so forth.

> Thanks for whatever suggestions you can offer.

Personal IRIS's are easily upgraded with SCSI disks.  Many electronics
outlets (as well as computer retailers) sell complete SCSI systems
(case, drive, and cable) at good prices.  Check a Computer Shopper
for ads for drives up to about 1 Gb...  Often these systems are advertised
as Mac drives, but they will work with your Personal IRIS as well.  If
you have the bucks and want to stick with SGI, you should be able to get
a deal on their expansion boxes if purchase en masse.

BEFORE INSTALLING THE DRIVES, shutdown IRIX and turn the machine off when
it is safe!

Installation is pretty simple- unhook the terminator from the SCSI
connector on the back of the machine and plug the SCSI cable from the
drive case into it.  Depending on the drive/case combo you get, you may
also need to plug the terminator into the second connector on the back of
the drive case.

Most PI's are setup with their first fixed disk at SCSI address 1 and the tape
drive at 2.  Follow the directions for changing the drive ID (should come
with the drive) to an unused #, in the range of 3-7.

Next, turn the drive power on, and then the PI power.  Don't be un-nerved if
the new drive doesn't spin right away- most large capacity (>100 megs)
drives don't start up until told to...

Once IRIX has booted, login as root.  The first thing you have to do is format
the new drive; type the following:

 % fx -x
 
 (device name): dksc
 (controller #): 0
 (device #): the SCSI ID # of the drive

I'm not sure what the prompts are, but that is their general meaning...
Once you have answered the initial questions (above), enter the following
at the fx prompt:

 auto <enter>
 exit <enter>

The 'auto' command will format the drive, map out bad blocks (not usually
necessary for SCSI drives), and put a label on it....  'exit' will return
you to the shell...

Next, type 'mkfs /dev/rdsk/dks0d#s7', where # is the SCSI ID of the drive.
Partition 7 (the 's7' on the end) is the whole-disk partition created by
fx.  If you don't want to add the whole disk (because you want more swap
space or something), you will have to use dvhtool to add partitions.  See
the Sys Adm manual in the 'Disk and Cartridge Tape Devices' section...

Once you have made the file system(s) with mkfs, you need to create
directories where you will be mounting the file systems (like /usr2,
or /disk2, or whatever) with mkdir...  Once the dirs are there, you
can mount the fs's (mount /dev/dsk/dks0d#s7 /usr2) and add them to
your /etc/fstab....

All these directions are from memory- please DO read the docs
SGI provides; they are actually pretty readable.

The bottom line is that it *is* fairly easy to add disks to PI's...

 -Mike Sweet

------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"The only        TASC                      (315) 724-1100 (voice)
 truth is that   555 French Road           (315) 724-2031 (fax)
 there are no    New Hartford, NY  13413   Internet: sweetmr at sct60a.sunyct.edu
 truths, only beliefs."                    Delphi:   DODGECOLT
------------------------------------------------------------------------------