X-no-Archive:yes
Michael, I do not know if you are getting any feedback on this issue.  I
will post my thoughts to everyone in the hopes they might spark more
thoughts.  Sorry to take time away form the lawyer thread.

Gigabit Ethernet is definitely desirable for the HP 3000.

Hicomp has brought the HP 3000 into the enterprise by having it participate
in enterprise backup at the same level as the UNIX and NT platforms.  It
was only recently that 100-BaseTx became available whereby one could now
keep something faster than a DDS-2 tape streaming.

However, even with 100-BaseTx, the limit will be reached in backups
throughput.  At that speed, you should be able to feed a single DLT7000, or
come close to it, but if you want to be able to use really high speed
storage devices, you have to do something else.  Let's look at some
numbers.

A 10-BaseT LAN will let you push data at an aggregate rate of under 1
MB/Second which translates to less than a maximum of 3.6 GB/Hour.  This is
barely sufficient to keep a DDS-2 DAT drive streaming.  With the advent of
DDS-3, DLT4000 and DLT7000, 10-BaseT was no longer sufficient.  100-BaseTx
will let you push data at an aggregate rate of under 10MB/Second which
translates to 36GB/Hour.  This is good for now, but in an enterprise where
you have many backup servers and lots of clients to backup, that is your
overall speed limit.  We have sites which use switched networks whereby
they automatically reconfigure or subnet the network at night for backups.
 This allows for more data to be moved, but still limits any one stream to
36GB/hour.

So to get beyond this, we use one of 3 methods.  Method 1, we multi-host
the tape devices, which means we SCSI attach various drives in the
autoloader directly to various systems and let one system handle the
robotics for everyone.  This works fine and we can push a backup at maximum
SCSI speed, but we are restricted by distance and also the number of
drives.  In other words, not every system will be SCSI attached to a drive.
Some are going to come over the network.  So method 1 helps a lot but does
not address all the sites.

Method 2 consists of multiplexing several backup streams coming from
various client nodes over different subnets, to the same tape drive.  We do
this in the case of very fast tape devices such as some DLT7000s, IBM
Magstars, StorageTek silos and others.

Method 3 consists of using faster networking technology such as ATM
currently and Gigabit Ethernet in the future.  We have used ATM on UNIX
boxes and have seen some incredible transfer rates.  Unlike the previous
two methods, this method is not available for the HP 3000.

It would really be a shame if the HP 3000 does not keep up with the
networking technology.  Now that we can have the HP 3000 participate in the
large enterprise backup, let's not leave it behind once again.

Please feel free to contact me if you have questions.

Kind regards,

Denys. . .

Denys Beauchemin
HICOMP America, Inc.
(800) 323-8863  (281) 288-7438         Fax: (281) 355-6879
denys at hicomp.com                             www.hicomp.com


-----Original Message-----
From:   Michael Tilford [SMTP:[log in to unmask]]
Sent:   Wednesday, 21 October, 1998 12:43 PM
To:     [log in to unmask]
Subject:        Gigabit Ethernet for MPE/iX - Information Needed

     Hello Everyone:

     I got a message today from the IO & Networking team of CSY looking for
     input on what requirements everyone has for Gigabit Ethernet on
     MPE/iX. They were asking field Account Support Engineers for their
     input, but I felt the best idea would be to get input from HP
     customers directly who have a need for this technology.

     The questions being asked are:

     - How big is the demand/need for Gigabit Ethernet?
     - What are the features being asking for?
     - Is there a requirement for port aggregation on Gigabit Ethernet?
     - Are there any other specific requirements?


     If you have any thoughts on this, just email them to me and I will
     compile all responses and forward it on to the appropriate individual
     requesting the information. Please indicate in any responses if I can
     submit your name and company name along with your response.

     Thank you.

     Mike Tilford, ASE
     Hewlett-Packard Co
     Falls Church, VA

     email: [log in to unmask]