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From: RMALOUF@SBCCMAIL.BITNET (Rob Malouf)
Newsgroups: comp.os.vms
Subject: Backups and disks
Message-ID: <8707080955.AA22830@ucbvax.Berkeley.EDU>
Date: Tue, 7-Jul-87 15:58:00 EDT
Article-I.D.: ucbvax.8707080955.AA22830
Posted: Tue Jul  7 15:58:00 1987
Date-Received: Sat, 11-Jul-87 02:42:47 EDT
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Distribution: world
Organization: The ARPA Internet
Lines: 31

Hello,

     I have two questions that I hope someone out there can answer.  First, do
I really need software checksums in my VAX backups?  I have read that they are
not really necessary and only degrade performance.  Does anyone have any
experience with not using them?  Any comments?  I am running a VAX 11/730 with
VMS 4.5 and a Cipher 990 GCR CacheTape 9-track tape drive for backups.

    My next question may be a little more difficult.  In the next few weeks, we
will be upgrading our site from a lowly VAX 11/730 to a VAX 8530 with a
VAXstation II/GPX networked to it and six diskless VAXstation 2000s in a
Local Area VAXcluster with the 8530 as a boot node.  Unfortunately, we could
not afford network hardware/software for the 11/730, so it will not be part of
this configuration.  However, I noticed in the documentation that an RA81
disk drive can be driven by two UDA50 controllers.  If this is really true,
then I could connect the 11/730's RA81 to controllers in both machines.
This kind of dual-porting would create a shared disk drive and a "poor-man's"
VAXcluster!  All my instincts say that it could never work, but why not?  Has
anyone actually tried this?  And by the way, does anyone know how I can get
the _Guide_to_Local_Area_VAXclusters_?  It is mentioned in the documentation
for MicroVMS/WS, but I did not receive it with the LAVC software, and I can't
even find it in the Winter/Spring 1987 _Software_Documentation_Products_
Directory_!

Any help anyone can give me would be GREATLY appreciated.  Thank you.

Rob Malouf
Marine Sciences Research Center
State University of New York
Stony Brook, NY  11794-5000
RMALOUF@SBCCMAIL.BITNET