WD1006V-SR2 update

[Larry Snyder]

Back in September I started reading and hearing about the advantages of the
WD1006V-SR2 controller over the Adaptec 2372B under SCO Xenix 2.3.2 
Throughput on the WD1006 controller is at times as much as 300% faster than 
the 2372 - which sounds like "just what the doctor ordered" since my machine 
is very busy most of the time with 4 modems on the phones 60% of the time and 
the constant scanning and batching of mail (we are bringing in around 52 megs 
a week - and forwarding around 200 megs).

I ordered a WD1006 and installed it the weekend of October 28th.  The 
installation required a complete backup (using tar and cpio), low level 
format, re-installation of OS then restoring the tapes.  Installation downtime
ended up running around 16 hours.   The WD1006 was fast and throughput on disk
IO flew compared against the 2372B.   I started having system lockups where
the LED on the second drive stayed on - and the hard drives appeared "frozen"
but I could still bring up the shell on the consoles - but nothing else.
These "lockups" happened sometimes once a week - and sometimes once every 
couple of days.  It appeared that the lockups happened when the disk activity 
was very heavy such as when batching outbound mail for several sites while all
4 modem lines were handling file transfers.  I started playing around and now 
could duplicate the lockup by loading the system.

While I was having this problem - I saw a message in Usenet about someone else
reporting the same problem.  I started following the thread and 5 or 6 others
mentioned problems with this controller under heaving loading.  WD claims 
they are not aware of any problems with this board - yet myself and others
were having these problems.  I received mail from others who are running this
board on loaded systems without problems - and was told about the rev 3 and
rev 5 boards (mine was a rev 5 and manufactured in August of 89 - and
according to the techs at WD was the latest revision - likewise the WD techs
suggested that if I had a rev 3 board - to send it back).  In any case - the
WD boards (both rev 3 and 5) are working for some sites running heavy loaded
machines but on the other hand - several people reported problems with this
board.

My options were: to send the board back and get a replacement - or reinstall
the 2372B which was solid and worked.  Since I was going on vacation at the 
time I didn't want to risk my machine being down for 10 days - so I decided 
to re-install the 2372 - which wasn't as fast - but worked.


-- 
Larry Snyder                     uucp:iuvax!ndcheg!ndmath!nstar!larry

                  ***  ISC, where is the RMA? ***