[geeks] Help - preparing drive for an SGI Indigo 2

[Jonathan C. Patschke]

On Wed, 1 Jan 2003, Lionel Peterson wrote:

> First, an easy question - what drive ID should the drive be set to? I
> have a proper sled, but the ST15150N I want to use has "micro" jumpers,
> and the cable for drive ID selection is a "mini" jumper block, so I
> have to set the drive ID manually. This will be the boot drive, and it
> will be in the "hidden" (or lower) drive bay on my Indigo 2.

The boot drive should be ID 1.  You may use ID 2 through 7 (yes, 7) for
the remaining two internal discs.  The controller lives at ID 0 (which
makes a hell of a lot more sense to -me-, but is completely backwards
from the rest of the industry).

> Finally, is there any reason why a stock ST15150N wouldn't work in an
> Indigo 2? I probably should have asked this first ;^)

Heat.  An Indigo2 with Extreme or IMPACT gfx puts out a lot of heat, an
IP28 CPU gets hot, and ST15150N are quite possibly the hottest-running
3.5" discs on the planet.

There may be adequate cooling (since the Indigo2 has big fans), but that
would be the only reason I could think of that it might not perform
spectacularly.  If adequate cooling is present, an ST15150N with
reasonable firmware (ie: not EMC or Clariion-specific junk) should work
great.

-- 
Jonathan Patschke
  "Albert Einstein nailed space-time, but the wild thing had him stumped.
   Al, baby, two and two make five-and-a-quarter; that's why people fall
   in love." -- Thomas Dolby, "That's Why People Fall in Love"