HI,

For low performace discs used for archive and such what is the best
interface to use on S10/Sparc, Firewire or USB?

/michael

In article <49o3o5Fpk5l8U1@individual.net>,
Michael Laajanen <michael_laajanen@yahoo.com> writes:
> HI,
>
> For low performace discs used for archive and such what is the best
> interface to use on S10/Sparc, Firewire or USB?

What's "best" mean? I think Firewire (original) is a bit faster than
USB 2.0 ('way faster if the newer version of Firewire were supported, but
I doubt that it is). OTOH, probably more and cheaper drives are available
with USB, and the USB driver has been around for Solaris longer, so
hopefully it's more stable.

Firewire storage was available with a patch for Solaris 9 too, but I just
tried a Seagate external (with both Firewire and USB 2.0) on it, and it
didn't seem to work. I'd like to think it would work better on Solaris
10, but I don't actually have anything handy with that loaded to try.

So if the best deal you happen to find is on a disk that has both, just
try and see which works best. Otherwise, the USB is at least a sure
thing...


--
mailto:rlhamil@smart.net http://www.smart.net/~rlhamil

Lasik/PRK theme music:
"In the Hall of the Mountain King", from "Peer Gynt"

HI,

Richard L. Hamilton wrote:
> In article <49o3o5Fpk5l8U1@individual.net>,
> Michael Laajanen <michael_laajanen@yahoo.com> writes:
>
>>HI,
>>
>>For low performace discs used for archive and such what is the best
>>interface to use on S10/Sparc, Firewire or USB?
>
>
> What's "best" mean? I think Firewire (original) is a bit faster than
> USB 2.0 ('way faster if the newer version of Firewire were supported, but
> I doubt that it is). OTOH, probably more and cheaper drives are available
> with USB, and the USB driver has been around for Solaris longer, so
> hopefully it's more stable.
I was thinking about expandability, Firewire looks easier to expand from
a practical point of view since atleast the drive I have here(Maxtor
500GB) has two Firewire ports for connection to a second drive and so.
>
> Firewire storage was available with a patch for Solaris 9 too, but I just
> tried a Seagate external (with both Firewire and USB 2.0) on it, and it
> didn't seem to work. I'd like to think it would work better on Solaris
> 10, but I don't actually have anything handy with that loaded to try.
>
> So if the best deal you happen to find is on a disk that has both, just
> try and see which works best. Otherwise, the USB is at least a sure
> thing...
>
>
I just plugged it into our E250 server S10U1, woops the machine
coredumped directly, not nice indeed!

Lets hope some firewire experts from Sun reading this


cheers


Michael

Michael Laajanen wrote:

> Richard L. Hamilton wrote:
> > In article <49o3o5Fpk5l8U1@individual.net>,
> > Michael Laajanen <michael_laajanen@yahoo.com> writes:
> >>For low performace discs used for archive and such what is the best
> >>interface to use on S10/Sparc, Firewire or USB?
> > What's "best" mean? I think Firewire (original) is a bit faster than
> > USB 2.0 ('way faster if the newer version of Firewire were supported, but
> > I doubt that it is). OTOH, probably more and cheaper drives are available
> > with USB, and the USB driver has been around for Solaris longer, so
> > hopefully it's more stable.

> I was thinking about expandability, Firewire looks easier to expand from
> a practical point of view since atleast the drive I have here(Maxtor
> 500GB) has two Firewire ports for connection to a second drive and so.

I have 5 individual ports on my USB card... And it cost me a whole 10
USD

> > Firewire storage was available with a patch for Solaris 9 too, but I just
> > tried a Seagate external (with both Firewire and USB 2.0) on it, and it
> > didn't seem to work. I'd like to think it would work better on Solaris
> > 10, but I don't actually have anything handy with that loaded to try.

I have a dual IOGEAR. Works OK

> > So if the best deal you happen to find is on a disk that has both, just
> > try and see which works best. Otherwise, the USB is at least a sure
> > thing...

I concur

> I just plugged it into our E250 server S10U1, woops the machine
> coredumped directly, not nice indeed!

Is that all? I got a system panic on my Blade 2000's builtin firewire
using Sun shipped 10 drivers.

> Lets hope some firewire experts from Sun reading this

Newer drivers are available from Nevada releases...

But thats a hack and hardly worth the bother when AFAICT there's
no discernable difference in speed from USB (which is supported) and
Firewire 400 which isnt - not that I ran bonnie or anything. Archiving
another box didnt not seem any faster on the firewire..