[OpenIndiana-discuss] Sun Fire

[Gary Gendel]

On 06/21/2013 11:56 AM, Peter Tribble wrote:
> On Fri, Jun 21, 2013 at 1:58 PM, Gary Gendel <gary at genashor.com> wrote:
>
>> I have a possibility of picking up a decommissioned X4340 (thumper)
>
> Hm. An X4340 is some sort of power transfer unit.
>
> Thumper = X4500
>
> Thor = X4540

Whoops, it's the X4540
>
>
>> w/o disks
>
> That's the killer. These boxes are very fussy about the drives that work;
> the
> real value of them now is for the disks they contain, you're going to have
> trouble getting drives (and it's going to cost).
Interesting.  I thought they used the same Marvell MV88SX6081 8-port 
controllers I picked up for the v20z.  I've been using that for modern 
WD and Seagate SATA drives without issue.
>
>
>> to replace my aging V20z ( and multiple external drive stacks cheap.  It
>> looks like it should be supported by looking at the HCL.
>>
>> Is there any gotchas I should be aware of before I commit to purchase?  Is
>> there something more modern I should be looking at instead?
>>
> Probably look at something more modern, and something sized to suit.
> It really needs to be full of 48 drives, only a couple of models are
> supported,
> and they're all getting a bit old.
Just looking for something cheap and big enough for at least 8 drives.  
I currently have two 5-drive external cases.  Since I haven't gotten the 
sata multiplexers to work, I have all 8 sata cables running out of the 
marvell controller directly to each drive, my own personal octopus.  
Can't get much more of a kludge than that.

Gary