Unix Disk Installations

This note details the steps needed to have a University-owned disk installed on the D0 Unix machines.

1. Before you purchase a disk, make sure that it is supported.
   • For installation on the central systems, the Computing Division will not accept any disk that is not included on the DCD Evaluated Peripherals List. The list is at:
     http://www-dcd.fnal.gov/dcd/dcdapplist.asp
     As of April 1999, the only disk on this list that meets our requirements of being at least 18GB and Wide Differential is the 18GB Seagate Barracuda 18, model number ST118273WD. This is the only disk that will be mounted on the central systems.

   • For installation on the workstations, the only disk that is recommended is the Seagate Barracuda 18 with the configuration appropriate for your workstation. To find the correct model number, check the Seagate web page at:
     http://www.seagate.com/cda/disc/guide/
     For help in interpreting the disk drive model numbers, check:
     http://www.seagate.com/disc/dmodelnumbers.shtml

   • While you may install any disk you choose on your own machine, note that you are responsible for making sure that the disk is compatible. Note also that there will be no D0/CD support except for the recommended disks.

     Collaborators who wish to install disks on Linux or NT machines should note that no disks have been tested on these machines. Therefore there will be no D0/CD support for such installations. Make sure that you understand your configuration; do not buy a SCSI drive if you do not have a SCSI card on your machine for example.

   • These recommendations will change as new disks are released and tested by Fermilab. If you are reading this on paper, check the current recommendations on this page at:
     http://www-d0.fnal.gov/d0unix/unixdiskinstall.html

2. Disk maintenance is your responsibility. FermiLab will help with replacement for supported disks but will not actually cover the maintainence costs. So make sure the disk has the standard five-year warrantee. Make sure you know the owner and Invoice or PO number on which the disk was purchased so that the warrantee can be traced. A copy of the invoice and/or PO would be best.

   NOTE: Do not buy a power supply enclosure or cables if it's going onto the central machines. If it's going on the workstation cluster you need to purchase a suitable enclosure and all necessary cables.

3. Decide where you want it mounted:
   • workstation cluster (your workstation)
   • Central machines
   • RunI (d0cha/batch or d0chb/interactive)
   • RunII (d0xxx or d02ka)
     
   The choice depends on your projected usage.

   NOTE: old disks from the VMS clusters can only be mounted on D0CHB and some of the workstations and then only after making special arrangements. Those are the only machines that support narrow/single ended SCSI. No disk smaller than 9GB will be mounted.

4. Decide how you want it used.
   • All disks will be "group write" disks, ie access will be via a Unix group, either a university group (tmp_root) or project group prj_root)
   • All disks on the workstation cluster will be "tmp" disks. That is, they are yours to do what you wish.
   • Disks on the central machines will be 1/2 "tmp" and 1/2 "prj" ie project disks assigned for use by a project of your choice.
   • If your project of choice is NOT an existing project,
   • Contact the Computer Policy Board (CPB) (Wyatt or Nick) to have it approved. Projects will be reviewed yearly for their current appropriateness.
   • If this is the first disk from your university, decide on a disk manager.

5. Deliver the disk to Jean Rhoades, DAB5, x5400 with the information above. She will see that:
   • it is installed
   • the groups are created, if needed
   • the selected manager has privilege to add/remove group members
   • the selected manager is trained in managing the disks
   • the disks are correctly set up

   NOTE: The physical disk space you receive may not be space on the actual disk you supply. But the space allocation will be correct.