[rescue] Needing one of several pieces of hardware to complete backup server

[Robert J.Slover]

Greetings,

I haven't been able to follow the list much in the last year+, but you 
guys have been a great help in the past.  I am looking for some cheap 
hardware to get a complete backup server together at work.  We are a 
software group that has (again) survived another big round of layoffs.  
As compensation for our survivor's guilt, we have inherited some 
hardware from other groups that are now gone.  We've gotten by for a 
long time on (previously inherited) Sparc 5's and a few Ultra 2's, 
other groups seem to have been a little less conservative.  We just 
inherited a few E450's and E250's and some HP9000 gear.  We also 
inherited a huge DLT backup unit that holds something like 100 DLT 
tapes.  The SCSI controller that came with it is PC/Windows NT only, so 
to make good use of it we need to get whatever it takes to get this 
thing tied to one of our Unix boxes.  It is High-Voltage differential 
SCSI only and will hook up to two controllers (or a single dual-port 
controller) for added bandwidth.  We are looking for cheap HVD SCSI 
controller(s) to go into one of the E250's, if possible.  If we can't 
locate something reasonable to go that route, the backup plan (pun 
intended) is to use an HP9000.  We got two, but will need to rob parts 
from one and add them to the other to have a complete working system.  
These machines already have HVD SCSI, but only have 10 base T, probably 
too slow to back up everything on our network.  So if we go that route, 
we want to get 100-base or 1000-base cards for it.  The system manager 
asked me to post here (he knows I follow the list) to see what folks 
might have available.  The HP is an  HP 9000 D380/2,
he says the buss type is GSC, though he thinks HSC cards work too.  I 
don't know a thing about HP's so anybody who knows more can feel free 
to correct these assumptions.  He spoke with someone at HP, and they 
suggested the following cards:

J3515A - 100BaseT/10BaseT/AUI Ethernet interface
J3516A - 100BaseT/10BaseT dual port Ethernet interface
A4926A - 1000BaseSX ethernet interface
A3723A - FDDI interface

I don't know what the definition of 'cheap' is but if you have 
something available, please let me know and I will pass on the info.

Thanks,


--Robert